Pretzel Logic: The Week in Albums: May 13

This was another busy week for releases, with at least half a dozen major new albums hitting shelves. Many of them got very good reviews, so the three profiled below are only the tip of the iceberg. I'll try to cover a few more of the highlights over the coming weeks.

#1

Smother
Wild Beasts
Domino Records

First things first: there just aren't any bands out there these days that sound anything like Wild Beasts. With their hypnotizing combination of percussion, silky guitar lines and Hayden Thorpe's falsetto vocal style, this English quartet have carved out a very specific niche for themselves following their 2009 breakthrough, Two Dancers. The past two years have been fairly quiet for the band, but here they are, releasing their much-anticipated third album, Smother. All of the elements that made Two Dancers so memorable have returned, but the album dives even further into the murky, libidinous world hinted at in the band's earlier work. On the album's best tracks, particularly "Bed of Nails" and "Plaything," Wild Beasts find a way to reconcile an indie rock musical sensibility with the palpable sexiness of good R&B. Mind you, it's a complex type of sexuality, where pain and uncertainty seem as important as pleasure, but given the general aversion to sex in most hipster-approved music, Wild Beasts' willingness to create songs this blatantly sexual is both admirable and welcomed. Especially given the vocal interplay between Thorpe and Tom Fleming, the band's secondary vocalist and all-purpose foil to Thorpe's dramatics, Smother recasts the whole genre into a gender-bending, androgynous space of beauty. There are Smiths comparisons to be made here, along with nods to lesser known artists such as the Associates and even a bit of Marc Almond, but much of what Wild Beasts are doing here is completely their own. It's wonderful to see this unique band building upon their established strengths and releasing one of the absolute highlights of the year so far.

[Note: sadly, the songs I want you to hear are not available through YouTube. So, here's the video for Smother's first single, "Albatross," instead.]

Simon's Grade:

Burst Apart
The Antlers
Frenchkiss Records

Speaking of unconventional, uncompromising bands, New York's the Antlers scored big this week with Burst Apart, the follow-up to their own big breakthrough album, Hospice. Despite operating at dangerous levels of earnestness (the whole album is about watching a loved one die of cancer), Hospice succeeded thanks to some breathtaking melodies and an shameless ability to reach for epic musical moments. In lesser hands, such heavily conceptual and overblown antics would feel pretentious or just plain irritating, but the Antlers' leader, Peter Silberman, manages to stick the landings. Burst Apart finds the band scaling back a bit, counting on quality songwriting to carry the weight rather than high concept narratives. For the most part, the songs are up to the task. "Parentheses" is probably my favorite thing the band has ever done, blending queasy atmospherics with sudden, jarring bursts of guitar riffage. Similarly, "No Windows" and "Every Night My Teeth are Falling Out" are catchy and compelling, often referencing electronic dance music more than traditional guitar rock. Only towards the end of the album, when things start drifting into power balladry and corniness, does the album show signs of weakness. The Antlers have proven that they're not afraid of making unusual musical gestures and with the release of Burst Apart, they're looking more and more like a reliably great band.

Simon's Grade:

Goblin
Tyler, the Creator
XL Records

Finally, in keeping with the theme of challenging new albums, we have the difficult case of Tyler, the Creator and his polarizing second album, Goblin. For those who haven't been anywhere near the internet in the past year, Tyler Okonma is the 20-year-old leader of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (or OFWGKTA), a group of extremely young Los Angeles rappers who have achieved substantial popularity. They've developed a well-deserved reputation for making iconoclastic, difficult music, far removed from mainstream hip-hop... or contemporary moral values. Accusations of misogyny and homophobia are certainly justified by their lyrics, while murder and general violence are common themes throughout everything they've released. Ahh, but then we have the Eminem factor: the group possesses immense musical talent. Tyler is definitely the star of the show and here, on Goblin, we see him at his best and worst. On one hand, the music here is powerful and refreshingly direct, best heard on lead single "Yonkers." Tyler's gruff voice is a feat in and of itself, given that he's several years younger than me but sounds as grizzled as they come. Then you've got songs that depict imaginary conversations between Tyler and his therapist, such as the title song, which are fascinating attempts to unravel the relationship Tyler has with the media and his public persona. These songs are dark and insightful... but for every one of these gems, there's something like "Radicals" or "Transylvania," which are just lazy exercises in shock value. Perhaps Goblin needed an editor. Maybe Tyler is just an immature young man. Either way, judging the album and the rest of the OFWGKTA output remains difficult. I won't tell you that there isn't redeeming musical value here, because some of these tracks are incredible. But there's also a lot of pointless hate and anger, and Tyler hasn't yet reached Eminem's level of channeling that energy into interesting music. So, listen at your own risk.

Simon's Grade: