Neon Musical Insight

Review by Caitlin Wittlif

Jónsi Birgisson is the closest thing the real, living world has to a Peter Pan. His childlike imagination and intensely creative musical abilities have been proven time and again on Sigur Rós albums, and on his first solo outing, Jónsi paints with every color on the canvas to construct a world of magic and revelry. This world is far from one-dimensional; though joy can be found in a majority of the songs on Go, there is still real heartache, frustration and devastation, presented so vividly that you can almost touch these emotions.
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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

There are so many wonderful surprises to be found on the debut LP by New York’s Freelance Whales, Weathervanes. The young band sounds as though they have been performing together for years, comfortable in their creativity but simultaneously maintaining a freshness that is sweet and earnest. Judah Dadone’s gentle soprano is at times charming, and at others, haunting, which entices you to take the whole musical journey with the band, from start to finish.

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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

Damon Albarn, puppetmaster of the animated and beloved band Gorillaz, has taken the visual art that is the band and woven it into the new music on Plastic Beach. It is arguably the least accessible of the Gorillaz albums, but like much of the very best art, the fact that this is a grower works to the record’s greatest benefit. There are left-field guest spots, grandiose orchestral compositions, and tunes dripping in electronic beats, all coming together to make an artwork that rewards multiple listens.

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The Knife defy convention. They don’t conform to media machinations and the synthetic music business. They resist becoming products of the industry: They choose to be faceless by performing in Venetian masks; They refuse to attend glitzy award shows like the Grammi’s (the Swedish equivalent to the Grammys) even though they usually sweep the shit out of them; Karin Dreijer Andersson, as her alter ego Fever Ray, is so elegantly grotesque she puts Lady Gaga to shame.  And frankly, they don’t give a flying fuck what you think.

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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

Rogue Wave’s latest album, Permalight, starts out promisingly – “Solitary Gun” kicks off with a moaning, whispered thought, in the same vain and tone as Radiohead’s “You and Whose Army?” It does not follow through on this musical mood, instead leaping into a peppy pop-rock tune with tons of instrumental voices hopping in and out, like the fluid changing atmosphere at a park on a sunny day.Unfortunately, this interesting and catchy song is not representative of the entire record. For every sweet, fun, clever melody on this album, there are an equal number of confusingly bland tracks.

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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

The Shout Out Louds’ new album, Work, is very sunny; light, but not necessarily lightweight. All of the songs are pretty, and although some never transcend this simplistic state, others go somewhere more complex and memorable, pairing melancholic lyrics with bright music in an attempt to lighten the emotional load.

The sounds the group plays with on their tracks are familiar, but are mixed in such a way as to disorient the listener; you’re never quite sure what era of music you’ve stumbled into. It’s that feeling you get when you think you see someone you know, a recognizable face in a crowd, but you can’t quite place them. Lead vocalist Adam Olenius alternates his delivery, at times explaining himself breathlessly, and at others giving quiet, breathy ruminations. When female vocalist Bebban Stenborg’s sweet soprano wafts in above, it softens Olenius’ already-smooth stylings.

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Review by Sheila Dichoso

It all started with Adam Green crooning, “Baby come dance with me on TV at the TV station,” (What does that even mean?) back in 2002. The bizarre lyric is from his solo debut, Garfield, and it’s perfectly sums up the erstwhile Moldy Peaches co-founder’s idiosyncrasy: tongue-in-cheek, “idiot savant” songwriting—exhibited in songs both with Kimya Dawson and his solo work—that are altogether genius, funny, and possibly headache-inducing if one tries to figure out what it all means. For his sixth solo album Minor Love, there’s more of the same lyrical flair now transformed into fine-tuned poetry (“Castles and tassels and flatulent assholes, I love you, always,” he sings) and it’s evident that he’s listened to more Dylan.

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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

The Local Natives are five guys (and sometimes a lady violinist) from California, which may very well explain the thematic elements of sun and light streaming throughout their debut album, Gorilla Manor. Whatever their reasons for ruminating on brighter matters, they do well not only reflecting them in their lyrics, but in the music, right down to the way they sing. The harmonies in Local Natives’ songs burst through tightly-woven guitar parts and prominent rhythm section, complimenting sunny pop tunes and comforting on darker, dirtier rock pieces.

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Review by Caitlin Wittlif

It is incredibly frustrating when a band with unquestionable talent and clear passion seems to sell itself short on a record, particularly a band that only puts out a record every once in a blue moon. So it is on Field Music (Measure), Field Music’s first album since 2007. The English band that thought they might be the Beatles but discovered they were “just some band” has sadly seemed to pigeonhole themselves with this sentiment, experimenting chaotically through 20 tracks and 71 minutes, striving to discover something everlasting and failing to create much of anything memorable in the process.

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DOWNLOAD MP3: Citizen Cope – “Healing Hands”

Kicking off a three night, sold-out stand at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, Citizen Cope brought his neo-soul, Jazz infused sound to the stage last night, with very little compromise to offer.  As soon as Cope stepped out into the limelight, cries from his adulating fans poured out, encompassing the entire, tightly packed venue.

Cope’s show saw him and his band touching on every album from his three album back catalog, but it wasn’t until he played such favorites as “Bullet and a Target” and “107 Degrees” — the latter with the assistance of his opener Alice Smith, whose vocal ranges was otherworldly — that Cope really showed how effortless the music came to him. Even through a cover of Neil Young’s “Out on the Weekend” Cope was able to sustain a folk essence without sounding unfamiliar or out of place.

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