A New Blog For A New Year

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.” – Anton Ego, Ratatouille

Hello and welcome to the new and improved Pretzel Logic! Today is the beginning of not only a new year, but an entirely new decade. In keeping with this sense of new beginnings, I’ve decided to revamp and focus Pretzel Logic for its second year of existence.

Things That Have Changed

-Content will be limited to only reviews and news, with the occasional random thought if I think it’s important. As much as I’ve enjoyed sharing lists of my favorite musicians and albums with everyone, I want Pretzel Logic to be more accessible and useful. This means dialing down some of my own personal opinions and list-making tendencies.

-I’m also going to be drawing heavily on what other critics are saying. A typical album review under the new Pretzel Logic regime will feature a sampling of what other people are saying about the work at hand, followed by my own opinion and final grade. This blog’s mission statement is to document and comment on music history as it is being written, meaning that being aware of what other critics are saying about these albums is very important.

-My manic posting rate will slow down somewhat. This new reviewing system requires more time and effort, since I have to both A) wait for these other reviews to be written and B) hunt them down. However, the flipside of this should be more in-depth reviews that really dig into how people are responding to new music.

-Finally, Pretzel Logic has a shiny new layout. Keep checking back over the course of this week as I add a few more bells and whistles.

My goal for Pretzel Logic is to do with words what sites like Metacritic and Acclaimed Music do with numbers: gain an overall sense of how critics are responding to new music. This blog will cover the albums that everyone seems to celebrating, along with those that everyone has united against and everything in-between. In the process, I hope to see history being written in front of me, as critics decide who the “winners” and “losers” of the this year’s music releases will be.

All the old Pretzel Logic content from the past year is still in the archive. However, from here on out (with one exception this weekend), Pretzel Logic will be a different beast. No longer will it simply be an outpouring of my own thoughts and opinions. Instead, I hope it will prove to be a valuable resource for anyone interested in what the world thinks about new music.

So, if you’re out there reading, don’t be afraid to interact. I want Pretzel Logic to spark conversations. If you’ve got opinions about the music I’m talking about, share them. If you think there’s music out there I should cover, please tell me. One voice of criticism is virtually meaningless on its own. Add your voice to the many others I’ll be showcasing on a regular basis.

Under Construction

Pretzel Logic will return on January 1st, remodeled and ready for a new year of action. In the meantime, quake with anticipation!

Furthermore, after January 1st, this site's URL will be http://pretzellogicmusic.blogspot.com. If there are any of you out there kind enough to have bookmarked my site over the past year, please update accordingly.

State Of The Pretzel Logic: December

Well, here we are at the end of the year. The weather’s getting chilly and the holiday season is breathing down our necks. Personally, I’ve had a fantastic 2009 and I hope that the rest of you did as well. In a few short weeks, we’ll have not only a new year, but a new decade. I can’t wait.

Pretzel Logic has been online since January 1. It’s been a constant source of pride for me and has given me the chance to hone my writing skills. It has also kept me much more aware of current music than I have been in past years. Over the course a single year, I’ve written 276 posts and reviewed 127 albums. I’ve had a great time and I hope anyone out there reading has enjoyed what I’ve had to say.

Unfortunately, I’m rapidly becoming cynical about the role music blogs play in the world. People seem to be placing more and more stock in their own opinions, resulting in a culture where no one really gives a shit what other people think. Twitter and the assorted new communications media outlets are undermining more in-depth writing by reducing conversations to 140 characters. All these factors are leading me to consider putting Pretzel Logic to rest for good. While it’s been a lot of fun for me on a personal level, I feel like it isn’t serving much of a purpose in the world.

I haven’t actually decided what the future of this blog will be yet. I’m going to take a break from blogging for the rest of this year and decide how I want to proceed. If Pretzel Logic does come back, it will be sometime in the first week of January, probably somewhat radically redesigned. If it doesn’t, than I want to thank everyone who’s been reading. It’s been one hell of a year.

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 5: Albums #5-1

#5
A Woman A Man Walked By
PJ Harvey & John Parish

A Woman A Man Walked By opens with the bombastic “Black Hearted Love”, but that one amazing track is actually wildly unrepresentative of the rest of the album. Its real emotional core lies in the twisted organs and PJ Harvey’s strained voice on “April” and the psychosexual intensity of the title track. A Woman A Man Walked By is not a comfortable album by any stretch of the imagination, but the feverish lyrics, combined with John Parish’s eerie, rustic music, create a fascinating and emotionally gripping ride from start to finish. Even the most beautiful songs on the album, like the mandolin-led “The Soldier”, are undercut by extreme tension. As always, Harvey is an absolute revelation as a singer, not performing songs as much as living them. A Woman A Man Walked By lets her show her full range, from terse growls all the way up to almost childlike shrieks. Harvey and Parish both bring a lot to the table as musicians and this album succeeds because both have an innate understanding of how all the various tools at their disposal can be combined into something great.

[original review]

#4
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Raekwon

Literally picking up exactly where the original Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… left off, Raekwon’s much anticipated (and much delayed) sequel finally arrived in 2009, becoming a welcome throwback to the great rap long-players that seem to be rapidly going out of style. While OB4CL2 has plenty of the usual Wu-Tang tricks (kung-fu movie samples, RZA’s crisp, dry production), the album also recognizes the amount of time that’s passed since Rae first started rhyming about crime, drug dealing and his Wu family. Multiple tracks pay homage to fallen Wu brother Ol’ Dirty Bastard, while Rae and the expected mob of Wu-related guests tackle the same old subjects from a wiser, more thoughtful angle. At the same time, OB4CL2 sounds immediate and more than a little brutal. “House Of Flying Daggers” is the best gangster rap anthem in years, while the queasy “Black Mozart” and “Surgical Gloves” maintain the dark edge the Wu-Tang Clan has always been famous for. Toss in a few great, radio-ready cuts (“Cold Outside”, “Mean Streets”) and you’ve got the best rap album of the past several years. It may have taken over a decade, but Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II is worth the wait.

[original review]

#3
The Crying Light
Antony And The Johnsons

No album in 2009 could match The Crying Light for sheer beauty and grace. From the plaintive violins and fragile piano all the way to Antony’s peerless, unimitatable voice, this is simply a gorgeous album. However, tucked away behind all the wonderful, sparse music is a deep undercurrent of sadness. Antony’s voice may be beautiful, but it’s also incredibly haunting and filled with pain. The Crying Light is the sound of someone maintaining poise and composure in the face of a world that seems to be falling apart. When Antony sings “I need another world, this one’s nearly gone,” it feels like he’s ready to willfully fade away and leave this flawed world behind. When Antony’s voice finally begins to crack, during the powerful second half of “Aeon”, you start to becoming deeply worried about this vulnerable, pained figure. With only his astonishing voice, Antony evokes tremendous empathy in listeners. With music that matches his emotional-but-elegant style, The Crying Light is nothing less than a masterful artistic triumph.

[original review]

#2
Crack The Skye
Mastodon

How does an album that features lyrics like “the screaming arrows burst through my soul” and “please tell Lucifer he can’t have this one” become my second favorite album the year? The answer to the question is two-fold. First, Crack The Skye kicks ass. Mastodon have spent most of the decade refining their melodic reinvention of modern metal and all that work finally paid off with Crack The Skye, an album that’s simultaneously heavy as an actual mastodon, but also very accessible. They’ve got a Metallica-esque ability to craft great melodies out of distorted guitars, all while possessing a strong grasp on how to use dynamics to underscore the emotional content of their songs. But the second reason Crack The Skye is such an accomplishment is that it taps into a vein of very personal, human sadness. Written for and partially inspired by drummer Brann Dailor’s sister Skye, who committed suicide at the age of fourteen, Crack The Skye is a harrowing document of coping with painful loss and the disorienting confusion that comes with it. Of course, that’s all tied up in a semi-absurd story about Rasputin and astral travel, but the emotions are still quite visible. I sternly believe that Mastodon have been the best metal band of the 2000s and Crack The Skye is their best album, injecting some needed humanity into a genre that’s rapidly losing touch with its universal appeal.

[original review]

#1
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Merriweather Post Pavilion. It was late December and I was holed up in a house, trying to outlast the Wisconsin winter. I was putting the groundwork for what would become Pretzel Logic in place, but I wanted an album to review for my very first post. It was brought to my attention that Animal Collective’s latest album had leaked online and, despite my general distaste for their music, decided that they would be a good, well-recognized band to launch my blog with. I tracked the torrent down, cued up “In The Flowers” and did my best to listen with an open mind.

Two songs in, I felt like my life had been changed.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an album of contradictions. It’s dense, but also very light and airy. It’s warm and welcoming, but also very metallic and jarring. It feels profoundly organic, but was made mostly with electronics. Strangest of all, it features songs that are, for the most part, unequivocally happy, yet it feels somewhat down, even a bit mournful. I still don’t completely understand how Animal Collective did it, but they combined all these disparate elements into one singular piece of work that stands as one of the most compelling slabs of music released in the past ten years. From the lighthearted fun of “Summertime Clothes” all the way to the hushed (and weirdly underappreciated) “No More Runnin’”, all the songs on Merriweather Post Pavilion are different shades in one massive, multicolored ocean of sound. The crowning achievement is “My Girls”, which is one of the most touching and honestly joyful songs I’ve heard in my life, but the whole album maintains a similar level of quality. Twelve months ago, I couldn’t even fathom that Animal Collective could make an album like this. Now, here I am, waxing poetic about it on my blog. MPP was the first album I ever reviewed on Pretzel Logic and I’m overjoyed that, one year later, I’m still singing its praises.

[original review]

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 4: Albums #10-6

#10
Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear

I’d resisted Grizzly Bear’s homespun, warmly fuzzy music for a long time, but Veckatimest finally knocked down my last defenses. At a time when everyone and their mom seems to be starting up indie pop bands, Veckatimest doesn’t represent a radical new way of doing things, but it shows how powerful indie pop can be when done well. Soaring melodies combined with rich vocal harmonies is nothing new, but Grizzly Bear just sell their songs to you so well. There’s still a bit of that rural twang hanging onto their music, but with their subtle keyboards and layers of choir-like voices, the songs on Veckatimest sound strong and assured. Plus, the album features the gorgeous “Two Weeks”, which single-handedly sets the bar absurdly high for every other indie band trying to find that one perfect crossover single.

[original review]

#9
Face Control
Handsome Furs

Wolf Parade are rapidly starting to look like one of those “one-and-done” bands, who release a single great album and then essentially vanish off the face of the earth. Thankfully, one half of Wolf Parade’s core songwriting tandem, Dan Boeckner, seems to be really hitting his stride with Handsome Furs, his other band, formed with his wife, Alexei Perry. Going back to the singer-and-keyboardist synth duo model of the 1980s, Handsome Furs play stripped down music, but don’t think for a second that Face Control sounds weak. Boeckner’s barbed guitar and Springsteen-strident vocals provide the force, while Perry’s brittle electronic beats and stabs of keyboard give the music an edgy, stark quality. Songs like “I’m Confused”, “Evangeline” and the devastating closer, “Radio Kaliningrad” stand as some of the most cathartic and thrilling music released this year. Handsome Furs may still be treated as “that band with the other guy from Wolf Parade”, but with albums this strong, that could change in the very near future.

[original review]

#8
Préliminaires
Iggy Pop

Of all the albums featured on the list, Préliminaires is possibly the hardest to really dig into and appreciate. It comes with a reading list (Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island) and requires the listener to be aware of Iggy’s storied past. Clearly, this is a tall order for many music fans, especially as the world seems to be forgetting about Iggy at a frighteningly fast pace. However, as faux-New-Orleans jazz albums inspired by French science-fiction go, Préliminaires is an extraordinary accomplishment. Iggy does an admirable job of setting the themes of the book to music, but he also makes these songs deeply personal. Houellebecq’s story of an entertainer struggling to maintain his relevance and virility as he ages is something that must resonate deeply with James Osterberg, the sixty-two year old man behind the Iggy persona. After a demented career, full of ups, downs and too many self-inflicted injures to count, Iggy has finally let his mature, intelligent Osterberg side have free reign on his music.

[original review]

#7
Embryonic
The Flaming Lips

Yeah, no one saw this coming. Don’t even pretend like you did. The Flaming Lips spent the past decade getting increasingly mellower and mellower, recording some good music but getting frighteningly toothless in the process. All that changed on Embryonic, as the Lips unleashed a seething mass of static-drenched mind-fuckery upon the world. With its pounding bass lines, disembodied vocal samples and general formlessness, Embryonic is not for fans who were lured into orbit by the whimsical silliness of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots”. Most of the songs have dark overtones, questioning the moral nature of humanity, with Wayne Coyne’s desperate, strained vocal performances leading the charge on many songs. The whole teetering mess reaches its inevitable climax with “Watching The Planets”, the cacophonous track that closes the album. Sure, the album may run a bit long, clocking in at seventy thunderous minutes, but the Flaming Lips have brought power and darkness back into their music. In my book, that’s a very, very good thing.

[original review]

#6
Fever Ray
Fever Ray

While it may not be the equal of the Knife’s Silent Shout, the 2006 masterwork by Karin Andersson’s more famous band, Fever Ray is still a stunning piece of music. While it shares Silent Shout’s icy, looming dread and disorienting vocal pitch manipulation, Fever Ray is ultimately a gentler, more personal record. This approach has strengths of its own, however, resulting in gloriously strange tracks like “Seven”, as well as desperately lonely pieces, such as the peerless “Keep The Streets Empty For Me”. Andersson has become a master of atmosphere, perfectly balancing industrial percussion, grinding electronics and twinkling keyboard riffs to create a sound that’s intensely oppressive, but also startlingly beautiful and haunting. While it may not be the most welcoming album ever created, Fever Ray is one solid, cohesive work from start to finish, from the bleak “If I Had Heart” all the way to the anthemic “Coconut”. The world might still be waiting for the next Knife album, but Fever Ray more than deserves the title of Silent Shout 2.

[original review]