Le Tigre – Le Tigre [Mr. Lady 1999]
Post Bikini Kill now, Kathleen Hannah & Co. make a new wave album where momentum proves dynamic, politics proves left, and scenarios both sincere and rhetorical prove immersibly enrapturing. Topics include saying fuck Giuliani, feminist shout outs that would be considered radical in the 90’s but typical for any bachelor of the arts wielding humanities student today (a sign of progress, no?), a sci-fi horror story any movie would be lucky to have and on my favorite a treatise on the wonders a girl’s bedroom can hold to the young artist’s creative process. 4.2/5
Algernon Cadwallader – Some Kind of Cadwallader [Hot Green/Asian Man Records 2008]
The more I listen the more it makes sense. These young men from Yardley who helped make Philadelphia into the new indie/punk mecca of the 2010’s despite imploding after only 6 years together have a way of capturing the youthful sound of every basement show and making it not suck. Which, let’s be clear, is impressive in its own right. That they can do it using a Kinsella-core sound template (high notes, finger taps, power chords) but be catchier and faster is equally impressive. Lyrics and annoying 13-minute coda aside, this is the aural version of what being drunk on PBR in your late teens really feels like, possibilities, melancholy, and wild reckless abandon. 3.7/5
Pavement – Brighten the Corners [Matador 1997]
The story goes that this was the straightforward rock album that was a little overinflated because music journalism underrated Wowee Zowee so much. That the decision to move away from weird and just do a guitar album full of non sequitur and cryptic psycho-poetry could even be conceived as “straightforward” should attest to this groups endless sense of intrigue. Maybe it’s just the semi-roteness that comes with routine, you’re in your late 20’s now and you know the steps you have to take to make your money and keep people pleased, a little paint by numbers to pay rent. And so shows up some of the main songwriters’ contribution to the indie canon; Malkmus’s great line “Oh no, not me. I’m an island of such great complexity” delivered with such sarcasm it should give any ironist a smirk, and Kannberg’s “Passat Dream” whose drum track, background whoos, and descending guitar line sound prescient with regard to where guitar music would go in the mid 2000’s. And it’s about a goddam smarmy car salesman. 4.1/5
Broken Social Scene – You Forget It In People [Arts & Crafts/Paper Bag]
Normally I don’t focus too much on technical details because its reads as dry but my god someone shoot the mixing & mastering team. The potential is clearly there, this large group of Canadians who have many other bands they’re already a part of understand songwriting and narrative but not how to take big swings. The problem is that the mix sounds god awful; tender moments like “I’m Still Your Fag” make you reach for the + on your volume while the electronics on “Almost Crimes” could be made to sound like they aren’t buried under so much mud. That the tunes themselves make it through is a testament to Kevin Drew and his friend’s talent, that he let them go out sounding like this is a testament to his hubris. 3.4/5
Cosmic Hero 