Technical Difficulties

Due to issues with the hard drive that stores my music, my weekly album posts are being temporarily postponed. Stay tuned.

The Week in Albums: Mar. 11

#1
Collapse Into Now
R.E.M.
Warner Bros.

In a week without a positive critical consensus about anything, R.E.M.'s Collapse Into Now looms the largest among the many new releases. That doesn't mean people like it, but we really can't ignore one of the biggest bands of the past thirty years. Collapse Into Now is the band's fifteenth album and it shouldn't surprise you to learn that it sounds a lot like an R.E.M. album. While the reviews weren't exactly overflowing with praise, many critics described the album as a return to form, hearkening back to R.E.M. circa-1995. Lots of anthemic guitar parts and veiled lyrical ramblings from Michael Stipe, etc, etc. Personally, as a fan of 2008's under-appreciated Accelerate, I expected more from this new, late-era incarnation of the band. I've never been wild about the band's bigger, more polished moments and Collapse Into Now features nothing but those types of songs. If you're a big R.E.M. fan, you'll probably like this record. If you're not, it won't be the one to win you over. What more can you really say?

Simon's Grade:



#2
Smoke Ring for My Halo
Kurt Vile
Matador

Philadelphia-based songwriter Kurt Vile scored a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork this week, along with many other positive reviews. His fourth album features ten heartfelt, mostly-acoustic songs, featuring his mumbling voice and some nifty, upbeat work from his backing band, the Violators. Unfortunately, Vile does little to elevate himself out of the pack of Conor-Oberst-and-Elliott-Smith impersonators that populate every indie label in the country. At its best, Smoke Ring for My Halo uses off-kilter arrangements and bouncy melodies to create crafty little songs that worm their way into your brain (see: "Jesus Fever"). But mostly, it's just boring.

Simon's Grade:



#3
Civilian
Wye Oak
Merge

Wye Oak are, for all intents and purposes, a clone of the band Beach House. Both bands consistent of guy-gal duos. Both bands are from Baltimore. Plus, both bands sound more-or-less the same: dreamy, hazy indie-pop flecked with electronic squiggles and smoky vocal performances. Of course, that doesn't mean Civilian is a bad record. Especially on tracks like "The Altar," Wye Oak show that they might be able to hold their own against their more established peers. In fact, their willingness to be more forceful and actually make some noise (see: "Holy Holy") is a huge mark in their favor. Civilian is a good sign, a key step in putting Wye Oak on the map. However, it's going to take at least one more strong album before they move to the front of the indie-pop ranks.

Simon's Grade:



Also this week: Lasers by Lupe Fiasco (2.5 pretzels), Constant Future by Parts & Labor (3 pretzels) and Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang by Raekwon (4 pretzels).

The Week in Albums: Mar. 4

#1
Wounded Rhymes
Lykke Li
LL

Rising to the top of a slightly thin week for album releases, Lykke Li's Wounded Rhymes was greeted with almost universal praise. The Swedish indie-pop star's second album is a searing collection of great songs, finding a very precarious balance between hooky catchiness and angular, left-of-center electronics. It can be hard to believe that songs like "I Follow Rivers," which sounds like a sort of Knife-lite art-pop, can be sequenced quite naturally along accessible ballads like "Love Out of Lust." Supposedly inspired by a rough breakup, Wounded Rhymes seethes with angst, rage and sexual frustration, best heard on the album's lead single, "Get Some." If Wounded Rhymes occasionally veers too far into maudlin territory, beautiful tracks like "I Know Places" and the ringing closer "Silent My Song" ensure that the album has plenty of powerful moments.

Simon's Grade:



#2
He Gets Me High [EP]
Dum Dum Girls
Sub Pop

Californian rockers Dum Dum Girls record noisy, messy rock songs, channeling the Supremes and Sonic Youth in equal doses. Building on the strength of their debut album, released last year, this new He Gets Me High EP further consolidates the band's strength. Three original songs, highlighted by the cacophonous title track, hint that something great could come from Dum Dum Girls in the future. The album's fourth track, an amped-up cover of the Smith's immortal "There is a Light that Never Goes Out," further demonstrates the power this young band is starting to tap into.

Simon's Grade:



#3
Different Gear, Still Speeding
Beady Eye
Beady Eye Records

While I usually use these recaps to cover albums that everyone liked, I do want to draw special attention to things that everyone absolutely hates. This debut from Beady Eye, the name Liam Gallagher chose for his post-Oasis band, might not be truly despised, but that's not for a lack of trying. Without his brother Noel around to write actual songs, Beady Eye's material trots out the most boring tropes of classic rock without adding even a pinch of originality to the mix. While this is nothing new for Oasis, at least Noel's blatant rip-offs were catchy. Now that Liam is leading the charge, we get brain-dead self-mythologizing like "Beatles and Stones." We'll see if this band holds together long enough to record a second album.

Simon's Grade:

The Social Network, Facebook and the Cultural Zeitgeist

So, The Social Network didn't win Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards. Despite many people predicting it would win (including myself), the late surge of support for The King's Speech ended up extending all the way to Oscar night. The King's Speech claimed awards for Directing, Writing and Lead Actor along with its Best Picture win, resulting in one of the more balanced and convincing wins in recent Oscar memory.

I'm not sure if you ventured onto Twitter after the awards, but people were pissed. Whether we're talking about the Aaron Sorkin loyalists or the college-aged movie fanatics, lots of people were voicing their disappointment with the awards. No voice was louder than Rolling Stone's resident movie critic (and my personal archenemy) Peter Travers. Although his official write-up of the show toned done the ire a bit (despite being titled "Worst. Oscars. Ever."), his in-the-moment reactions consisted of tweets like this:

"The King's Speech wins Best Picture. Justice is not done. The Academy again mistakes Oscar night for Valentine's Day." - Peter Travers, Feb. 27, Twitter

This tweet nicely summarizes most of the reactions I've read. Many critics claim that The Social Network is a once-in-a-lifetime film, that perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere of contemporary culture. Furthermore, many of the actors are young and unestablished, as compared to the cast of The King's Speech, who've been winning accolades for the past thirty years. It's easy to make The King's Speech look like the bad guy here: stiff, British movie full of old(er) people is victorious over the young, modern, edgy masterpiece. What could be more in touch with our modern lives than "Facebook: the Movie?" How could the Academy choose the safe and boring option over something so ground-breaking and relevant?

Well, here's the truth: The Social Network is NOT about Facebook. Nor is it about social networking. At no point in the film do we really see how the creation of Facebook has changed the way people interact. I'm sorry, Aaron Sorkin, but a scene where someone spontaneously turns "Facebook" into a verb doesn't cut it when it comes to representations of massive cultural change. Here is, in order of importance, what The Social Network is really about:

1) Mark Zuckerberg
2) litigation
3) intellectual property
4) friendship and loyalty

At its heart, The Social Network is a legal drama. The fact that the plot revolves around Facebook doesn't mean that the film actually deals with Facebook, as a phenomenon of cultural significance. As much as the critics are whining that The King's Speech is just another boring biographical movie, that description can just as easily be applied to The Social Network. Whether you're following Mark Zuckerberg or the King of England doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Both films hit the same beats: establishment of a flawed protagonist, attempts to overcome obstacles, unforeseen consequences and complications, and finally some level of resolution. Both films are based on true events and both films take wild liberties with their source material.

However, what The Social Network doesn't have is the emotional core of The King's Speech. By featuring a main character who is presented as borderline autistic, The Social Network's Mark Zuckerberg is a difficult protagonist to sympathize with. Of course, Sorkin goes one step further, implying that his ultimate motivation for creating Facebook was puppy-dog sadness and bitterness after being spurned by too many girls. Even if there was any evidence suggesting this was true (the book Sorkin adapted, The Accidental Billionaires, featured no interviews with Zuckerberg himself), this reduction of a complicated human being into a stereotype is ridiculous.

The Social Network does not tap into the cultural zeitgeist. It does not show what life is like for college students in the late 2000s. Hell, it doesn't even really show you Facebook. It is most certainly not "Facebook: the Movie." If it was, it would show how Facebook has utterly altered the way people, young and old, are communicating and relating to each other. It would show the weight of Facebook-mediated relationships. It would explore the very slippery concept of the "Facebook friend." It would show how this social networking site, created by a college student for other college students, has evolved into something white-collar employers use to evaluate their employees. Yet, The Social Network does none of those things. It's just another biopic. The King's Speech is also a biopic and it happens to be a better one. Now, can we all calm down and enjoy another year of movies?

Oh, Hey, Baseball...

It's easy to forget, but I do use this blog to discuss my beloved Seattle Mariners. Let's briefly run through the newsworthy stuff from the first days of Spring Training:

-we traded Matt Lawson, a utility infielder we picked up in the Cliff Lee deal, to the Cleveland Indians for Aaron Laffey, a left-handed pitcher who has failed to establish himself as a starter or reliever in recent years. Welcome to the team, Aaron. This would be a great year for you to figure shit out.

-Erik Bedard started a game and both of his arms are still attached. This is what good news looks like for Mariners fans. He even struck two guys out! Is nothing impossible?

-the giant group of guys we have competing for bullpen spots (or The Pile, as Lookout Landing has dubbed them) haven't produced too many standouts. Manny Delcarmen and Justin Miller got blown up during early games, while Denny Bautista doesn't even look like a minor leaguer at this point. Dan Cortes and Josh Lueke threw clean innings yesterday, though. Plus, remember, there is no way the bullpen could get worse than last year...

-...oh, and those hitters. None of them have done anything interesting, beyond the odd home run here or there for some of the young guys. Milton Bradley is hitting well, but my cynicism prevents me from thinking this means anything.