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indie-snob>+!#
give up by the postal service
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Watch out now, you're about to see a real album review here! Haven't seen one of those on here for a while, eh? I suppose the reasoning for that is that I've been pretty busy and haven't gotten a lot of music I felt I needed to review. After all, it's so much more pleasant to review things I like. Plus, I usually tend to only buy things I like. Nonetheless, here it goes. 9.5 This is perhaps one of those perfectly concieved albums, where you talk about it with your friends like: "Hey, wouldn't it be great if that lead singer from Death Cab for Cutie, [Ben Gibbard], did an album with some electronic artist, [like Dntel]?" And my dreams (and perhaps yours) came true. I first heard "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" without knowing what it was exactly. I was in an Urban Outfitters with my friend, and I thought it sounded like DCFC, but I couldn't figure out which album it could have possibly been off of. It was a few weeks later that I learned about Ben Gibbard's little side project, and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear the outcome. The CD is one of those rare materpieces from beginning to end, ranging from the ever-so-slightly political "Sleeping In" to the lovely duet "Nothing Better." Sometimes the album makes you want to get up and dance (in a strange and twisted way), as present in "Clark Gable" with a nice beat and even, yes, you guessed it, HAND CLAPPING! It seems that 50 minutes of synth-pop could get kind of repetitive if not annoying, but I tend to highly disagree, as this album makes me feel so damn good about every thing. With beautiful vocals from Ben and the unexpected back-up vocals from Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley on a number of the tracks, this album has such a polished feel without sounding mechanical. Jimmy Tamborello does some wonderful programming here, the best perhaps since Mark Bell's work on Bjork "Homogenic." (Or should I just go to Matmos's on "Vespertine?") But whichever album it is, he does a wonderful job at creating lush electronic sound scapes without downplaying the use of the human voice. Also, instead of solely using synthesizers, both Gibbard and Tamborello incorporate other instruments, such as guitars and more traditional sounding pianos and organs. What I think is most astonishing about this album is that the vocals do not sound tacky as they so often do on highly electronic songs, which is why bands only attempt 1 or 2 electronic songs in their lifetime (save the majority of art-rock bands). Each time, it seems as if Gibbard's voice is so perfectly suiting for the role in the album. Of the dozen plus albums I've heard so far this year, this ranks at the top. I think no band has come close with such a solid release. After all, Gibbard's lyrics continue to prove that he is one of the best lyricists on the scene today, right along side people like Thom Yorke, Conor Oberst, Tim Kasher and so many other songwriters I adore. This is my most highly recommended album I have to tell you about right now. (PS: A Ben Kweller concert review exists behind this review and more album reviews to come for Cursive, Cat Power and others.) |