What It Is And What It Isn't: My Top 5 New Album Releases

With the first month of 2010 behind us - and the second halfway gone - I've decided to do a bit of early soul searching. Usually this doesn't happen till May/June (the time that I finally realize that I need to shed my winter weight and stop drinking so proactively), but since January was such a personally intense month for me I figured that going back into my reclusive tendencies to move past - or at least forget about - the insanity this frigid month had brought me. It's a time to reflect and to look toward greener pastures and brighter tunnels and I can't think of any other thing that would make me hopeful of that future than scouring the internet for news of new album releases. It's my ostensible approach to cheering myself up in an otherwise doom and gloom kind of world that seems to want to shit in my cereal.

A few weeks ago a friend and I were sitting at the bar trying to think of new albums that are going to be out this year. We didn't come up with much, but as per usual I don't think of an answer until my brain has had time to subconsciously mull it over. Kind of like George Castanza not being able to think of a good come-back until a few hours later when he's already left the meeting. Well, the jerk store finally called and I've come up with five bands whose new album will be dropped this year. Obviously there are more, but the website is called 5songsinarow, not 10songsinarow. And I'm lazy.

5. Snowden

There's not much going on in the southeast part of the states as far as music's concerned. It's rare to hear of a new band coming out of my home state (Florida) or anywhere remotely close-by. Georgia would have to be the only southeastern state to produce a reasonably decent band. You have the University of Georgia college-town of Athens which spurred bands such as R.E.M., of Montreal, and became the temporary home for Danger Mouse and Neutral Milk Hotel for a while. Then of course there's Atlanta and the one group that immediately makes me think of that city - OutKast. Sure, there are others, including my #5 pick, Snowden - a four piece indie rock outfit whose debut album Anti-Anti caught the attention of many listeners in the audioverse. Including mine.

I hate to make generalizations as to how a band sounds, but the closest approximation I can conjure that would allow this post to not be so lengthy is that Snowden sounds like the southern Interpol. They have a bit more girth and a lot less hollowness than their New York couterparts, but they're not far off from each other in terms of the genre they are categorized in. The same thing happened to Kings Of Leon and The Strokes. KOL was labeled as the southern Strokes when their first two albums - both not that very good - were released. Two albums later they are one of the biggest modern rock bands of the past two years and are about to perform on the Grammy's. I don't see that for Snowden, but that's OK, because then that allows me to be able to actually afford to go see them play. I'm all for bands making money for what they do, just don't dig too deep into my pocket. Art should be accessible for everyone and with the merger of LiveNation and Ticketmaster it's about to get a whole lot less accessible. Billy Corgan would disagree, but then again I don't trust any artist that would willingly allows one of their songs to be used in an advertisement for pro wrestling.

Little is known about the new Snowden album, we just know it'll be released this year proceeded by a new EP with "exclusive" material. If the new forthcoming material is anything close to being as good as Anti-Anti we are all in for a big treat. Keep a look out for these guys (and one girl). they are going to be big. Not Grammy big, but big nonetheless.

4. Interpol

Back in 2007 Interpol released their third album Our Love To Admire to an uproar of praise for going in a different direction with their music. It catapulted them to the mainstage and out of the shadows of the underground. Gone was the signature reverb and darkness that made these four New Yorkers such a catch with Turn On The Bright Lights. Antics - their follow-up to TOTBL - had all the elements of their first album, but was lacking a David Lynch kind of soul Bright Lights had. Still their music intrigued the masses. They snag your attention because of two attributes that in my opinion are essential to making a career out of music. They are digestible and they are memorable.

Being digestible means that any listener who hasn't heard one single track of Interpol's can easily discern and assimilate it into their own repertoire of genre-specific artists that may or may not group them into a race or class. These first-time Interpol listeners may not like them, but they can understand them. They "get it". Interpol is rock. It's two guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a bass, drums, and a singer; Your standard modern-rock archetype (Cocaine optional). Present this same group of people with Animal Collective songs and you'll get a bunch of blank faces staring back at you wondering why someone decided to turn their microwave into a musical instrument. Animal Collective is trying to be artsy for artsy sake with their avant-garde/experimental/electronica type of sound that makes me grind my teeth down to their roots every time I hear them played or someone tries to tell me to "just listen to it, man." I am listening to it, man, and I don't like it. But other people love them, and I fail to understand why. I can, however, understand why people would love Interpol. They are the poster child for modern indie-rock. Most people don't listen to Joy Division or The Chameleons. Which is why they listen to Interpol because it's almost the same experience for today's less-educated music follower. Compare it to listening to Nirvana circa 1992 and not knowing who The Pixies were. There is always a means to an end. Especially in music.

As far as being memorable, that's just Interpol's ability to write catchy tunes that get stuck inside your head without you realizing it until a few days later when you're grocery shopping and find yourself humming along to "Evil". When a song - Interpol or otherwise - gets stuck in my head it makes me think of the future of music listening devices. It won't be too long before we just plug a cord into our brain to download songs and listen to them. Scary to think that when someone says "I can't get that song out of my head", they will be speaking literally and not figuratively.

There is no set release date for the new Interpol album, nor is there an album title either. It is rumored that they are returning to their roots and giving their fans some of the old by channeling some of what made Turn On The Bright Lights a fantastic album. However, I did read an interview the other day with Paul Banks with him stating that the new album will be "elegant" and "orchestral". I hope those aren't synonyms to "dull" and "vacuous".

3. Battles

One dude from Helmet, one dude from Don Caballero, and two other dudes (one of which released a solo album last year that was - to put it mildly - eccentric) make up the band Battles. Mixing elements of rock, electronic, and drum & bass these four musical chemists got immediate popularity with their song "Atlas" and the accompanying video which is one of my favorites. Let's watch!

Their first album Mirrored from which the single "Atlas" comes from is an amalgam of synth and sample riding on heavy hitting drums. But to be quite honest I don't really know what excites me about this band. It's just as experimental as any other band I tend to dislike, so why do I find myself attracted to it? When I started to write this segment about Battles I went back and listened to the entire album and I have to say that it was kind of painful to get through. I realized then that Battles is one of those bands to take in small doses. A song here, a song there. But that's it. It's one of the reasons why the album is a better listen on vinyl. Not because it sounds better, but because it's split into four discs with only two or three tracks comprising each side. This gives the listener the correct dosage for listening.

Regardless of how tedious the music of Battles is it's not going to stop me from wanting to hear more of what they have to say. Sure, the music fits into a specific niche that only a certain crowd will really want to experience, but the other people will be there too. As experimental as Battles is it doesn't count them out of playing in front of a large audience at festivals. There will be the dedicated fans that have weaseled their way to the front for Battles' set which comprise maybe 10% of the group, but there's also that 90% that only want to hear "Atlas". This gives me an idea of how their new album will be considering musicians are always trying to evolve and have their music reach more people. For instance, the new Yeasayer album, which is great by the way (well, at least 60% of it). What makes Odd Blood good is that Yeasayer realized they didn't want to be "that band" for eternity that made weird music that attracted even weirder fans. Once that happens your fan base shrinks to the point of not making any money which means not making any more music which means going back to your shitty job working for the man. So bands compromise. They keep some of their Cageian sensibility while making their albums a bit more digestible to the public. Some would say that's selling out, but I disagree. Selling your song to play on a commercial during the Superbowl is selling out. I'm looking at you, Grizzly Bear. But, here again, bands have bills to pay just like us common folk. Let's hope Battles follows Mirrored up with their own Odd Blood and not something like Neon Bible.

2. Gorillaz

The same friend whom I mentioned earlier about the discussion of new albums coming out this year asked a question concerning everyone's favorite cartoon band. No, not Josey and the Pussycats, not Jem, and not KISS. I'm talking about Gorillaz. When the new single "Stylo" from the forthcoming third album Plastic Beach (Hitting the streets on March 8) was leaked online my cohorts and I listened to it and made our assessment. This was when the question "do you think Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are getting sick of doing Gorillaz?" was posed. My answer- no. If they were they probably wouldn't have done a third album. I have faith in knowing that if these two artists don't want to do something, then they seriously don't do it.

In keeping usual form, Gorillaz they have shed very little light on what has been happening with the band - 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel - since their last album Demon Days. What we do know is Plastic Beach refers to an island in the middle of the ocean made up of remnants of everything fake or "plastic" on the planet after a supposed apocalyptic cataclysm. That's a lot of silicone and Hollywood if ya ask me.

Since there has been a lack of real info on what the band has been up to I decided to go scavenge across the internets for any bit of Gorillaz news I could find on their new album. What I found were a few scattered links off of bass player Murdoc's Twitter page. It makes me wonder who the man behind the cartoon is. Is it Albarn? Hewlett? Or some junkie from Manchester they pay a few quid every week to just so he can ramble off and essentially be a real-life Murdoc? I like the idea of that, actually.

So here are a couple of Murdoc tidbits I was able to scrape up...

A blog that he is now writing up on MTV's website rambling on and on about Lady Gaga. Pretty funny, however I don't really like the idea of it being hosted on MTV, but whatever. MTV in Europe isn't the same as MTV here in the states. To the best of my knowledge they actually still play music videos. In any case, here's the link. Murdoc's Blog

A video showing us that Murdoc is on the run from an assassin. Maybe this is why he hasn't left the island yet and is stuck there as indicated in his blog post from above. Here's the video.

And last, but not least, a trailer for Plastic Beach giving us a fully detailed outside look of where the Gorillaz have been recording the new album.


Awesome, yes? I'm excited. And you should be too.

1. The National

We've come to the end, at least for now. I don't plan to stop writing anytime soon; that is unless my life comes to an abrupt end. But even then I'll make sure to start a new blog wherever I may be in the nether-realm. My hope is to be noticed by the Ghost Hunters and have them film an episode that does nothing but face a camera toward a computer while I spit out opinions on music from the other side along with dead musicians as guest writers. Yeah, I've kinda thought this through already. Does that make me morbid?


The only thing I really need to mention here is The National is obviously my top pick for the new album I'm most looking forward to (Did I say that right?). Is it going to be as dark and depressing as Boxer? I hope so. I want the new album to become an old friend as well. Someone you visit when times are really tough. When somebody else's problems seem to trump yours. Either way, I highly doubt it will disappoint. Even the shittiest National song is better than three-quarters of the other crap that's floating around now-a-days.

No release date. No hint on what kind of sound they are going for. Nothing. The band have collectively been quite secretive about the new album since they are still recording and what not. Understandable. I'd pull the LOST card if I were them, too. I almost don't want to listen to any of the pre-release singles until the entire album comes out. It'll be like a second Christmas for me. Who am I kidding though? I know as soon as a song is out on the net I'm going to want to hear it since all my other friends are going to ask what I thought of it. I'm weak.

To be honest with all of you it's not so much the album I'm looking forward to, it's the feeling I will get when I listen to the album that excites me. It's also the anticipation of connecting these new songs to something in my life happening at the moment. Kind of like a stamp on a letter that never gets sent. It just stays in a shoebox somewhere with about 1,000 others. Sealed away until I start to feel nostalgic one day and decide to open them back up. That happens every time I listen to an album that has that kind of emotional significance to me. Boxer is undoubtedly one of them. I always wonder if the artist ever has any clue as to what their music does to people. Do they think of the bigger picture or do they just contain themselves in their own little world?

To me, music is always something more. Music is a calling. It's a statement of whatever you feel. It can be a disease, an addiction, a judge, jury, and executioner. It's the hair standing on end at the back of your neck. It's murder. It's salvation. Love. Horror. Sadness. It can be anything, really. But what it is is what it's never not. No matter how many people interpret a song it'll always be something different. Music will never be just music.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for a new 5SIAR coming soon. Barring any accidental death and dismemberment, of course.