Irony and sarcasm are overrated. Both have a place in art, literature, music, and movies, and correct, effective use can be powerful; but I feel sometimes in the day-to-day these two have been beaten to death. So maybe 'overused' or 'overtired' would be a more correct word for how I feel. I'm very much guilty of some of the proliferation of these two bed-fellows and for that I do apologize to all of you reading and the universe at large. Irony is easy, especially in a cultural and social context, and sarcasm is even easier; but I'm determined to give these two sometime to rest and recoup. I've started to notice a subtle, cultural change across a lot of media lately; a slight turning away from the double-edged ease of irony and sarcasm to trying to find more effective ways of connecting. Chvrches' (pronounced simply 'churches') debut album, 'The Bones of What You Believe', is a wonderful bear-hug of a record that embraces wholeheartedly the musical legacy of synthpop and the last 40-odd years of electronic pop music and boils it all down to an effective, exciting, and most importantly, genuine album.
Chvrches are a Scottish synthpop group comprised of Ian Cook (synths, guitar & occasional vocals) Martin Doherty (synths & occasional vocals), and Lauren Mayberry (lead vocals & some synths on the side) and over the past year their hook-heavy, vocal-driven, catchy electropop has seen them skyrocket to success. Taking various touchstones from electronic pop music - the kinetic and muscular beats of early Depeche Mode, the shimmering arpeggios of The Knife, the bombastic expansiveness of M83, the vocal-driven pop wizardry of Robyn, and many more - Chvrches expertly distills all these elements and this electro-heritage into something all it's own. 'The Bones of What You Believe' is a great example of what a pop record can be (putting the electronic bit aside for the moment); full of emotion, catchy choruses, and vocals that keep you coming back for more. What I think is wonderful about Chvrches is that they have so enthusiastically embraced this pop-side of their music even though they have been dwelling more thus far in the indie-sphere. I've said it before, but 'Pop' isn't a dirty word and Chvrches has become a sort of banner-carrier for that cause within 'serious' music/music critique and it delights me to no end. That Chvrches was able to display this sort of musical confidence and know-how right out of the gate on their debut is what makes 'The Bones of What You Believe' such a treat and breath of fresh air.
Lauren Mayberry's vocals serve has the focal point of much of the record. Crystal clear and vibrant, Mayberry is able to carry each song on the record (save the two where the lads take over vocal duties) with skill and emotion. She is really the cog in Chvrches that makes it all click. Her subtle and adept delivery song after song allows some pretty awesomely subversive lyrics to creep into the mix. As befitting a pop album, most of the lyrics deal with relationships and love; but 'The Bones of What You Believe' is all about relationships gone south and is full of great, almost revenge tunes like Gun and Lies. Mayberry is able to weave these lyrics into bouncing, shimmering synthpop songs so effortlessly that on first brush with most of them you may miss the darker lyrical content amongst all the glittering electro. But it works, and works extremely well.
Of course all this gushing and praise-heaping that I've been doing for the past few paragraphs would be moot if the tunes weren't good. But fortunately for all of us, here again, Chvrches deliver in a big way. The one-two punch of the opening track, The Mother We Share, leading into We Sink, is a wonderful 6 minutes of pop heaven that I repeated more times than I can count over the past week. After that the hits really just keep coming with the slow build of Tether and propulsive beat of Lies and soaring vocals of Recover; it was hard for me to pin down a track I really didn't like. At 48 minutes, 'The Bones of What You Believe' is by no means a long record but perhaps one that could have benefitted from a bit of trimming to keeping its pop-y nature that much more zippy. Looking back over the track-list, the only song that really failed to leave a lasting impression on me was Night Sky, not a bad song by any means but a pretty forgettable one; and perhaps shaving those 4 minutes off the runtime of the record would have helped it sail even more. But Night Sky is really only a gripe because I'm trying to find fault with a record that I've had nothing but a blast with over the past week.
Chvrches are not the grand-indie-pop saviors of music they may have been touted to be, and I think they are more than happy not to be placed in that role. They are simply three people from Glasgow who set out to make an earnest, straight-forward, killer synthpop record. They have succeeded with great and admirable confidence and self-assurance that is not common in much new music today. All of this praise that I and others are heaping on them is all well and good, but at the end of the day, it's the songs that do the real talking and 'The Bones of What You Believe' speaks for itself.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: The Mother We Share, We Sink, Gun, Recover
Let-Downs: Night Sky
Rating: 9/10
Up Next: We are going to travel way, way back this week (thanks to another helpful recommendation) to the 1720s with Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Brandenburg Concertos'. It is high time to spend some quality time with classical music outside the context of Looney Tunes; should be an excellent week.
2013 has been a pretty fabulous year for really strong electronic/pop debuts with Disclosure's 'Settle', Rudimental's 'Home', and London Grammar's 'If You Wait' being some of the highlights for me (The fact that they are all British is a bonus). I can now add AlunaGeorge's debut 'Body Music' to that list. I discovered them through their feature on Disclosure's record and I have been throughly enjoying their album this past week. With inventive and fresh production from George Reid always anchored in Aluna Francis' strong and unique vocals, 'Body Music' is good times. So here is a single from AlunaGeorge that gives a sampling of the goodies I've been enjoying this week.
The Field is a minimalist electronic artist (real name: Axel Willner) from Sweden and since 2007's 'From Here We Go to Sublime' he's been releasing excellent electronic records pretty consistently with his latest, 'Cupid's Head', coming out this past week. With every album he's been building on his micro-loop, blanket of sound approach to electronic music with pretty spectacular results and this new release is no different. So I thought that I would share one of my favorite tracks from his newest record today, A Guided Tour. It's is a wonderful track to get lost in and has been distracting me quite a bit from King Crimson this week. Enjoy!
There is not much else in this world that I enjoy more than really good electronic music. Whether it's Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Burial, Aphex Twin, or The Knife, something about electronic music has really always appealed to me. A lot of it may have to do with growing up in Asia in 90's where techno was playing just about everywhere you went. Whether in bowling alleys, malls, markets or taxi cabs, electronic dance music was omnipresent. From my younger years through today, electronic music and I have had an ongoing and burgeoning relationship and I'm always excited to see what is coming down the pipe next as the genre continues to evolve and change.
When I first heard Rudimental's single, Feel the Love (a number 1 hit in the UK) late last year I was immediately hooked and excited for what they might offer next. But life happens and over time I forgot about Feel the Love and their following debut album until the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize were released. Rudimental's debut 'Home' was on the short-list and I thought that now would be a perfect opportunity to give the record a week (and 16 complete listens) of my time.
Rudimental are a drum and bass electronic outfit from London consisting of four members (Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor, DJ Locksmith) all sharing songwriting/producing duties. They've said in interviews that they want to give anthems to their generation that celebrate who they are and the times they live in. 'Home' lives up to this statement by providing a sort of melting pot of popular trends in both pop and electronic music. Everything from dubstep warbles, to soulful vocals, to ernest lyrics, to group-sing-along chorus, and a reclamation of 90's R&B stylings and melodies can be found on this record. Rudimental wants to cram everything that they love about music onto one record and when it works it truly is a thing of beauty.
Rudimental do a lot of things right on this record. Rock solid production values are found on every track. The bass rumbles and the melodies soar; everything sounds great. Along with grabbing stylistic hints of this and that from popular electronic music, Rudimental brings their own unique flavor by adding horns to many of the tracks. From vocal accompaniment to trumpet solos, horns play a big role in making this record something new; they provide an extra edge to tracks like Feel the Love that really sets them apart. The vocal performances on the record are also excellent without a real misstep in the bunch. 'Home' does a wonderful job of pairing up-and-coming pop vocalists with tracks that really show off their strengths as singers. Rudimental balances all of these elements quite well from track to track, especially considering that this is their debut outing.
Stand-out tracks like Spoons and Baby feature inventive production (with Spoons featuring actual spoons forming the basis of the track), excellent silky-smooth R&B vocals from guest MNEK, and solid songwriting representing what is wonderful about groups like Rudimental. Waiting All Night (also a number 1 single in UK) is another high watermark for me. Its skittering beat and passionate vocals from Ella Eyre energize the track and keep it engaging for five minutes, which is no mean feat. An infectious exuberance permeates these energetic songs and makes them impossible not to enjoy and get caught up in. Rudimental are passionate about their craft and their energy is palpable in these tracks.
As with many records, 'Home' contains a few tracks where the grand synthesis of styles and ideas that Rudimental strives for doesn't quite gel. Hell Could Freeze contains a wonderful chorus, but the rapped verses feel disjointed; almost as though they belong to another song. More Than Anything suffers from a similar problem, its wonderfully-power-ballady-rock-your-socks-off chorus makes the verses that precede and follow seem like a bit of a letdown. While Not Giving In sounds like Rudimental treading water; ticking the boxes and painting-by-numbers but not really capitalizing on some of the ideas or vocal talent present in the song. None of these tracks are bad or even necessarily weak, but Rudimental could have done more with them to give them that extra zing! They could have been essential to the album rather than pleasant scenery along the way.
Needless to say, I'm excited for where Rudimental goes next. 'Home' proves that they have something to say and some exciting ways of saying it. If you have any interest at all in electronic-pop, I highly recommend giving Rudimental a whirl. Hopefully by the time album number two rolls around they will have been able to really pin down what makes them unique in the pop-electronic world (horns, excellent guest vocalists, exuberant production) and play to those strengths. For now we have 'Home', a perfectly delightful debut record that serves up the pop-electronic-R&B goods while showing ample room for growth and exploration in the future. Here's to a long and prosperous future.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Feel the Love, Spoons, Baby, Waiting All Night
Let-Downs: Hell Could Freeze, Not Giving In
Rating: 8/10
Up Next: I'm diving this week into another genre that I've never really (seriously) given the time of day: jazz (expect, you know, when eating at Panera). I thought I would select what is widely regarded to be one of the best jazz albums of all time: John Coltrane's 1965 LP 'A Love Supreme'.
