Doctor Who, Series 6: A Review

Well, another year has gone by and another season of Doctor Who has ended. With the finale airing this past weekend, I thought it'd be appropriate look back on each episode and contribute my final selected thoughts now that we have all thirteen episodes in front of us. I'll give my grade for each one, before finally calculating a final grade for the season as a whole. Just look at it as something to argue about until the Christmas special...

EP 01: "The Impossible Astronaut"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Toby Haynes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor brings his friends together to watch his own death, only to reemerge from the dead and lead them all back to 1960s America, investigating the astronaut that shot him.

Thoughts: The first thing that stands out about this season is the stunning cinematography and "Astronaut" showcased that early. The epic shots of Monument Valley were an immense step up from the "quarry-in-Cardiff" style we're used to. Plus, there's that shot right above this blurb. Wow. All in all, a strong episode, which introduced the ominous Silence and set up the narrative framework for the rest of the season. Frenetic pacing at times, but not without reason.

Grade: A-


EP 02: "Day of the Moon"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Toby Haynes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor continues to investigates the Silence, a mysterious alien race who can edit themselves out of memory and are somehow connected with the Doctor's death on the beach.

Thoughts: Much more exposition-heavy than "Astronaut," "Moon" hurls you into the plot from the beginning and never lets up. Lots of cool things happen (most of them involving Richard Nixon), but the conclusion to the episode leaves a great deal of contradictory and unexplained plot holes hanging in the air. Overall, the episode feels like too many ideas trying to be told at the same time. The Silence are still a powerful concept for a villain, though, and this episode is a great showcase for their specific brand of terror.

Grade: B


EP 03: "The Curse of the Black Spot"
Writer: Steve Thompson
Director: Jeremy Webb

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor and Co. find themselves marooned on a pirate ship, while a beautiful siren menaces the crew and assorted stowaways.

Thoughts: A complete disaster. A weak concept (an episode of pirate tropes) is made even worse by dismal writing from Sherlock contributor Thompson. Plot holes galore, along with clunky dialogue, hamfisted sentiment and some truly ridiculous pirates. The cast does their best to sell the story, but are betrayed by their flimsy script and Webb's uneasy directorial debut for the show. Easily the worst episode of the Moffat era.

Grade: D


EP 04: "The Doctor's Wife"
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Director: Richard Clark

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor travels beyond the universe to a sentient asteroid, which sucks the soul of the TARDIS out of the blue box and into the body of a woman.

Thoughts: This episode is as good as "Black Spot" is bad. Gaiman's much-awaited contribution to the show does not even remotely disappoint, nor does Clark's bold directorial style. The episode's simple concept is executed beautifully and poetically, while Matt Smith delivers some of his best work opposite Suranne Jones. There's even an Ood! Love an Ood... All in all, a complete triumph.

Grade: A


EP 05: "The Rebel Flesh"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

Plot-in-a-Sentence: A group of miners use a substance known as the Flesh to create copies, or Gangers, of themselves, before a storm gives the Gangers their independence.

Thoughts: Strongly reminiscent of Series 5's humdrum Silurian arc, the first half of this two-part episode is surprisingly strong, getting far with a bit of atmosphere and great location scouting. Murray Gold's score is impressive throughout and the Gangers conflicts with their original versions is interesting, no matter how many cliches Graham tries to throw in the way. Solid acting from the guest stars works wonders.

Grade: B


EP 06: "The Almost People"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Gangers war against the miners becomes deadly, while two Doctors struggle to keep the two groups from tearing each other apart.

Thoughts: The Flesh arc loses steam in its second half, as the reasons for conflict become increasingly forced. Matt Smith again steals the show, this time by playing two versions of himself, but Graham cannot account for assorted plot holes and glaring questions opened up by these antics. A weak, disappointing episode overall, by the last ten minutes cannot be missed.

Grade: C+


EP 07: "A Good Man Goes to War"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Peter Hoar

Plot-in-a-Sentence: Old friends come to the Doctor's side as he brings the fight to his enemies in an attempt to rescue the kidnapped Amy and her newborn daughter.

Thoughts: The midseason cliffhanger aims absurdly high and somehow more-or-less hits its mark. Almost certainly Smith's finest episode to date, with innumerable great quotes and line readings. Moffat manages to cram so many different things into a brisk fifty minutes, while ensuring that almost every one feels necessary and satisfying. A truly great episode that strongly reveals the season's dark themes while providing a great deal of old-fashioned sci-fi fun. Oh, and the identity of River Song. I guess that's a big deal.

Grade: A


EP 08: "Let's Kill Hitler"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Richard Senior

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The TARDIS finds itself in Nazi Germany, but new revelations about River Song and a mysterious, shape-changing vessel prove to be much bigger problems.

Thoughts: This episode never feels like it truly got past its hilarious title. In the most concentrated dose of exposition the show has done since the Davies years, the episode answers questions by revealing dozens more that need answering. The actors give it their best, but the script feels too crammed to be executed easily in forty-five minutes. Major props to the creation of the Tesselecta, though, especially the hilarious Antibodies. "You will experience a tingling sensation and then death." Indeed.

Grade: B-


EP 09: "Night Terrors"
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Director: Richard Clark

Plot-in-a-Sentence: A young boy requires the Doctor's help after being plagued by fears of monsters in the night.

Thoughts: Gorgeous directing and a passable script from Doctor Who/Sherlock stalwart Gatiss can't completely save this episode from unavoidable Who cliches. There's the adorable child with mysterious power. Amy and Rory get trapped somewhere. And finally, the redemptive power of emotion solves all the problems. Perhaps, in a vacuum, this episode is stronger than it feels here, but after seasons of these types of things, its all starting to feel a bit boring. Creepy? Yes. Memorable? Not so much.

Grade: C+


EP 10: "The Girl Who Waited"
Writer: Tom MacRae
Director: Nick Hurran

Plot-in-a-Sentence: Amy gets stuck in a faster time stream, aging forty difficult years before Rory and the Doctor can find her.

Thoughts: In writing these reviews, I've realized how important each script is to my final grades. Make no mistake: "Girl Who Waited" looks quite stunning. However, MacRae's script is simply dreadful. Karen Gillan is a bit out-of-her-league playing Future Amy, but she's trying her damnedest and most of the blame should fall on the ridiculous lines that are being put in her mouth. A powerful visual aesthetic, complete with enemies that look like they evolved from iPods, makes this episode worth watching. Just get ready for some groaning every time Amy says "probe."

Grade: C


EP 11: "The God Complex"
Writer: Toby Whithouse
Director: Nick Hurran

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The gang are trapped in a hotel-like maze, complete with minotaur, while rooms with their deepest fears line the hallways.

Thoughts: The season's late-episode redemption begins here, as the seemingly inexorable slide toward mediocrity is finally stopped by this strong addition. The show gets a lot of millage of the rooms-with-fears-in-them stuff, which the cinematography and production design get to flex their muscles. The conclusion is all a bit rushed, with the Doctor reduced to rapid-fire yammering before everything settles down, but the process of getting there remains interesting, even after repeated viewings.

Grade: B+


EP 12: "Closing Time"
Writer: Gareth Roberts
Director: Steve Hughes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor calls upon Craig Owens once again, this time investigating a group of Cybermen hidden beneath a shopping mall.

Thoughts: As seemingly the only person on Earth who wasn't completely in love with Series 5's "The Lodger," I was skeptical about bringing back Craig for another adventure. Thankfully, this episode was wonderful, in the most ridiculous of ways. Adding Craig's infant son to the mix provides endless jokes and hilarious moments, contributing some needed levity to this dark season. Again, the episode's end borders on absurd, but it's all so much fun that you can look past that. A great example of what this show could look like without a regular companion attached.

Grade: A-


EP 13: "The Wedding of River Song"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Jeremy Webb

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor prepares to face his death, only for River to disrupt a fixed point in time, thus forcing all of history to happen simultaneously.

Thoughts: The show's first single-episode finale continues the trend of heavy exposition and blistering pacing found in Moffat's other contributions this season. Unfortunately, where "Good Man" was thrilling and surprising, "Wedding" feels all too predictable and doesn't hold up to detailed plot analysis. Question after question pops up if you try to untangle the timeline the show has created for itself and the episode indicates that Moffat and his writers might not take the time to solve this mess. Watching all of time happen at once is a great deal of fun, but I would have preferred the show to deal with its own plotlines first before making grand, absurd gestures.

Grade: B

Final Season Grade: B. Series 6 tried to explore the Doctor's darker side, showing the side effects of his intergalactic celebrity and responsibilities to his friends. In doing so, however, the writers seemingly lost the ability to tell consistently compelling stories. There are many great things to take away from these thirteen episodes: Matt Smith has truly come into his own as the Doctor, as did Arthur Darvill as the impossibly endearing Rory. The production values and visual aesthetic of the show have never been stronger. However, until the writing returns to a higher standard, the show will continue to feel like a slight disappointment in my mind.

The Blog Returns, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zep

(Welcome back to Pretzel Logic! It's that time of year again, when I get the familiar urge to figuratively pick up my imaginary pen and start writing again for an audience that may or may not exist. However, in the past, this drive has always been accompanied by strict personal guidelines and attempts to impose order or schedules on my writing style. This time, I'm throwing that all out the window. I'm going to take a stab at personal and observational essays, mostly on the topic of music but occasionally about completely different things. Hopefully, those of you who've been reading over the past few years will find this change a welcome and interesting one. As always, feedback is welcomed, encouraged and appreciated. - Simon)

I won't beat around the bush here. For the better part of the past decade, I hated Led Zeppelin. If you have even a passing familiarity with this whole, crazy rock music thing the kids have been on about for, oh, the past sixty years, you'll understand why this was such a controversial position for me to take. Led Zeppelin are not merely a rock band. They are The Rock Band, a mythological force of might and justice. The Beatles may be considered the most important band in history, but, in the popular imagination, no one can really compete with Zep when it comes to sheer power and weight. They didn't have a singer; a Golden God graced their (unworthy) microphones. Jimmy Page wasn't just a guitarist. He was a black magician, who harnessed nothing less than the power of sweet, sweet Satan through his six-stringed worship. Hell, sometimes one guitar wasn't enough and Page brought out the dreaded double-necked guitar to pay homage to his Dark Lord. And if this wasn't enough, their drummer was the drummer who essentially ended all other drummers. John Bonham pummeled his way into the psyche of entire generations of stickmen. You want to know how important Bonham was? Watch the episode of Freaks & Geeks where Jason Segal's character learns Bonham died. Now multiply that for every aspiring hard rock musician of the seventies. Heavy shit, right? (Editors note: I guess John Paul Jones was in this band as well. Ho hum.)

So yes. This was the band I hated. Whenever I think about Zeppelin these days, I think of Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood, who declares that he "grew up rebellin' against the music of my high school parking lot" on DBT's masterful 2001 album Southern Rock Opera. Mind you, Hood is talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd and his parking lot happened to be in Alabama, but I know that feeling. When you're removed from the apparent baseline for high school culture (sports, beer and house parties), the lunk-headed soundtrack to those activities takes on a certain negative light. For me, Zep always represented the most conservative approach to music fandom possible. After all, that's what classic rock is, at least in this day and age. Any danger or rebellion that was once present has been steamrolled out through excessive play on radio, television, film and every other medium imaginable. The Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Zeppelin... these aren't primal rock bands any more. They're the soundtrack to our daily lives. They are firmly established chunks of America's cultural history. To listen to their music today isn't a provocative action. In fact, it's expected of you.

Enter high-school-Simon, an awkward theater kid with a voracious appetite for music. After the Red Hot Chili Peppers broke down the dam of popular music for me, it didn't take me long to see through the mainstream veneer of classic rock and zero in on the more bizarre stuff. The jarring politicism of Rage Against the Machine hit more more than other radio rock. The depressive bombast of Alice in Chains was always a bigger draw than fellow local heroes Nirvana. And then I discovered Radiohead and there was no turning back. The irony, of course, is that all of these groups were massive, internationally successful acts, but at the time, such distinctions were important. They set me on a course that I still feel I'm following, searching deeper and deeper into the history of music to find sounds that appeal to me.

There was no room in my pantheon of musical greats for Led Zeppelin. For years, when I heard Zep songs, I heard conformity. I associated the band with guys who were in Youth Republicans groups, who drank beer at house parties with their bros and were destined to become respectable, white-collar corporate employees. I went to college, where my stereotypical associations with Zeppelin were reinforced. The people who liked Zep weren't rebels or iconoclasts or people who truly "rocked." There were the folks who just liked to party a bit, all within the carefully defined historical expectations of partying. Getting drunk, randomly making out with a few girls and listening to Zeppelin have been ingrained into the traditional college experience.

In college, I did none of those things. I didn't get drunk, any making out was most definitely planned and Zeppelin stayed far away from my laptop speakers (although the RIAA did try to take me to court for supposedly downloading "Over the Hills and Far Away"... ironic, considering that I downloaded every other song known to man). Even as I gained academic appreciations for many other bands under the classic rock banner, Zep still sounded like overly libidinous English guys masturbating with their guitars all over the legacies of dozens of unheralded blues musicians. The band remained one of the few bands I could confidently say I had no taste for, whatsoever.

So, how did I get where I am right now, typing away on my blog while "Trampled Under Foot" plays merrily from my iTunes library? About a month ago, two events conspired to forever change my view of Plant, Page and their gang of hooligans. The first, as goofy as it may be, was the release of the trailer for David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If you haven't seen it yet, do so now (oh look! A link!). Besides being a startlingly well-edited trailer, the soundtrack immediately captured my attention. That's Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O covering Zep's "Immigrant Song." Suddenly, I saw Zep in new light, as a forceful, driving and slightly desperate-sounding band, with songs full of unresolved tension. I like songs with unresolved tension. Now that I think about it, that's just about all I listen to.

The second major event in my rediscovering of Zeppelin was reading Erik Davis' contribution to the glorious 33 1/3 book series, each of which features an author tackling a specific album. Davis chose Led Zeppelin IV, but instead of delivering the expected sermon on the band's unmitigated awesomeness, he hypothetically explored their mythology as if it were fact. Yes, Page really did make a deal with the devil for the riff to "Kashmir" and yes, Bonham really was part caveman. But one passage stuck out for me, when Davis discussed how the endless forward motion of the most rockin' of Zeppelin songs was the musical equivalent of unresolved sexual energy. In Davis' opinion, this positioned Zeppelin against the bands of the 60s, which, if we're being completely honest, were coming to musical climax all over the place.

With these key influences informing my listening, I revisited Zep's catalog. And lo and behold, I heard exactly what Davis was talking about. Or at least, I did across six songs: "Dazed and Confused," "Immigrant Song," "Trampled Under Foot," "Kashmir," "When the Levee Breaks" and, most importantly, "Whole Lotta Love." These six songs represent my reclamation of Zeppelin, away from the beer-soaked hands of my high school parking lot. These six songs allowed me to personally reconceptualize the band as the dangerous, ferocious force that I'd been promised for so long. These are songs driven by monstrous riffs, full of guitar grit and experimental structures. Hell, on "Trampled Under Foot," even the usually insufferable Plant sounds like his vocal chords are being destroyed with sandpaper. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's awesome!

I'm still not a big Zeppelin fan. Their slow, bluesy songs still do nothing for me, especially now that my college-educated self has a firm understanding of copyright law. Don't even get me talking about the unmitigated disaster that is "Stairway to Heaven." But finally, at long last, I've found my window, however tiny, into something that so many people seem to have been hearing for years. The paths we take to discover music aren't always particularly straight or predictable, but I savor those moments when, after years of being lost in the maze, I finally find the figurative door that leads me into an exciting new musical world. A land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. AhhhhhEEEEEHHHHAAAAaaaaHHH!

It's Whosday! Recaps: "The Almost People"

Series 6, Episode 6
Title: "The Almost People"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

My Mariners just won an incredible game and I'm working without notes, so bear with me as I recap "The Almost People," the second half of the Ganger arc started by last week's "The Rebel Flesh." It's been a frantic week for the Who-niverse, with a long series of promos for the mid-season finale, Steven Moffat's announcement that the Daleks will be retired for a while and finally an insane twist ending to "Almost People." The excitement for this weekend's "A Good Man Goes to War" could not be more palpable, but the expectations of fans are also reaching dangerous levels. We're facing a three-month break without new episodes, we know that we're going to be left with a vicious cliffhanger and, on top of all that, we've been handed so many unanswered questions already this season. In a brief 45 minutes this Saturday, some of those questions will probably be answered. But some won't and other, new ones will be introduced. It's enough to drive a person mad, I tell you.

In "The Almost People," we pick up exactly where "Rebel Flesh" left off, with the Doctor and his human comrades facing off with the newly cloned Ganger-Doctor (who becomes known as John Smith, in good Who tradition). Needless to say, with two Matt Smiths onscreen, the great moments come fast and often. There's some homages to earlier Doctors ("I've reversed the jelly baby of neutron flow!") and a lot of agonized screaming before everyone settles down and runs away from the attacking Gangers. They run to an evac tower to escape choking gas, before running around to find Rory, and finally they all run into a series of catacombs to hunt down the TARDIS. Both episodes in this arc featured lots of running to new locations so people could talk, followed by more running, followed by more talking. So yeah, maybe writer Matthew Graham was just spinning wheels a bit, but at least we had two Matt Smith's this time.

The Gangers go through more of the same "us or them" talk, fueled by the increasingly unstable (both mentally and Flesh-wise) Jennifer. Eventually, most of them realize that they need to reconcile their differences with the human originals, but various forces conspire to pick off both human and Ganger until the only three left are both Cleaves, Ganger-Jimmy and Ganger-Dicken, along with the Doctor, Smith, Amy and Rory. Along the way there are emotional moments (such as when Ganger-Jimmy accepts fatherly responsibilities after the original Jimmy dies), but everything ultimately boils down to holding a door closed to prevent a absurdly mutated Jennifer from killing everyone. Then the Doctor and Smith reveal that they've switched places.

And this, kids, is where it gets complicated. Turns out that the Doctor devised this little plan to test the differences between originals and Gangers, lying to Amy about which was which to see if she placed her trust in the new, but technically identical Smith. Of course she didn't, even revealing to him in an emotional moment that she saw the Doctor die all the way back on the beach. But then he has to go and say that they switched. Seemingly, Amy spilled the beans on the whole "we can't tell him his future" bit, but we don't actually know for sure. The Doctor certainly didn't react in any big way and despite an off-hand reference at the episode's end (he talks to Smith about being invited to his own funeral), no time is spent dealing with something that previous episodes treated like a major plot point. So... I guess we'll find out?

More importantly, we learn that Amy has actually been Ganger-Amy since the beginning of the season and that the real Amy Pond has been controlling this copy mentally while secretly being ensconced in room somewhere to have a baby. The random appearances of the Eyepatch Lady have actually been caused by the image of a woman checking on the real Amy bleeding through her subconscious. Just when we thought everyone had been saved and no one had to die today, the Doctor reveals that he knows far more than he let on and melts Amy into a pile of Flesh-goo. Rory is distraught. The Doctor is stern. The audience is suitably confused.

"A Good Man Goes to War" will wrap up the first half of Series 6 and will be out last taste of new Who until September. The Cybermen, Silurians and Sontarans are all scheduled to make appearances, as will Henry Avery and his son, River, centurion Rory and that random blue guy from the beginning of "The Pandorica Opens." We're left with far too many questions and seemingly very little time for answers. I've all but given up speculating at this point, because I know that Moffat is operating at full evil genius mode right now and is far too pleased with his own wit to be actually predicted. So, we'll see what we get. We've been promised a reveal about River Song's identity. We've been promised an all-star lineup of the Doctor's most famous enemies. And now we've got an insane rescuing-Amy-and-her-newborn-from-doom plot line to contend with. I'm not sure a single episode can deal with all those things in a satisfying way. But I'm sure Moff is going to try. Let's all hope for the best, yeah?

Stray Observations (sans notes)

-This whole arc was a clusterfuck of bad CGI. Blech.
-Any fans of Moffat's Jekyll out there recognize the building where the Doctor drops Cleaves and Dicken off? I think it's the same one as the headquarters for Jekyll's company.
-Again, solid acting from the cast as a whole. Raquel Cassidy particularly had some great moments in this second half.
-Seriously, when do the Doctor and Smith switch? So much depends on this.
-The Doctor's final lines to Smith about how dying might not erase his consciousness seem like a major plant for something later. Please don't tell me the Doctor who died on the beach is a Ganger...
-I'm very interested in the order of the Series 6 episodes. I know I'm not the only one feeling slightly (or perhaps a bit more) disappointed with the season so far, but I wonder if we'll say the same thing after seeing what comes in September. Imagine if Series 5 had gone "The Eleventh Hour" - "The Beast Below" - "Victory of the Daleks" - "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" - "The Vampires of Venice" - "Amy's Choice" before taking a mid-season break. We'd all be whining our heads off.

(Photos courtesy of Emma-Jane)

Seattle Zephyrs Recaps: Week 8, 8-7 Win

On paper, this looked like it was going to be a huge week. With only a two-game lead atop the league standings, the Zephyrs faced off against the second place team, Love Me Ortiz Me. However, what was supposed to be a battle for first place ultimately ended with neither team gaining much ground. Technically, the Zephyrs came out ahead, squeaking out a win when Dustin Pedroia stole a couple bases this morning to carry that category. However, the Zephyrs' lead is still a tiny one and we head off to Week 9 looking to put more distance between us and the competition.

Offense
-Runs: Jose Reyes, 8
-Hits: Reyes, 14
-Home Runs: tie - Carlos Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, 2
-Runs Batted In: tie - C. Gonzalez, Pedroia, 6
-Stolen Bases: Pedroia, 3
-Walks: Pedroia, 3
-Batting Average*: Reyes, .519
-On-base Percentage plus Slugging*: Reyes, 1.313

*minimum 15 at-bats

...and the Week 8 Offensive MVP Award goes to:


JOSE REYES! While the offense certainly wasn't overpowering this week, the Zephyrs managed to put together a balanced attack, with everyone chipping in somewhere. The only truly incredible performance, however, came from Reyes, who batted over .500 and slugged the ball with command. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked him up on draft day, but Jose probably has the strongest case so far for being my season MVP.

Pitching
-Wins: tie - Dan Haren, Daniel Hudson, 1
-Losses: tie - Daniel Bard, Heath Bell, John Danks, Haren, James Shields, 1
-Saves: J.J. Putz, 4
-Strikeouts: Jered Weaver, 12
-Holds: none recorded
-Earned Run Average*: Weaver, 0.56
-Walks plus Hits Per Inning Pitched*: Weaver, 0.81
-Strikeout-to-Walk Ratio*: tie - Haren, Hudson, 4.00

*minimum 5.0 innings pitched

...and the Week 8 Cy Young Award goes to:


JERED WEAVER! In yet another week where the Zephyrs' offense struggled to keep pace with out opponent, the pitching came through again, doing everything but actually picking up wins. Jered sure pitched like a winner, especially when he threw 9 shutout innings yesterday while giving up only two hits, but even a performance like that couldn't net him a victory. With John Danks being cut from the team and additional setup man David Robertson being added, the Zephyrs will continue to lean heavily on their five starters to keep up our winning ways.

The Week in Albums: May 27

After a week of boring and altogether ignorable releases, The Week in Albums returns with a couple decently reviewed records and one painful reminder of promising talent that has ultimately gone no where. Aww shucks.

#1
Pala
Friendly Fires
XL Records

The past ten years have seen hundreds of English bands mining the post-punk years of the late 70s and early 80s for musical inspiration. However, while most of these groups have gone straight to critically beloved acts like Joy Division or Gang of Four, Hertfordshire trio Friendly Fires have their sights set squarely on Duran Duran. None of that hip moodiness or atmospheric gloom for them, just funky, edgy, dance-friendly pop songs. It's taken the band a while to move past the neseccary imitation stage, but on Pala, their second album, Friendly Fires are finally beginning to sound unique and noteworthy. Singles "Live Those Days Tonight" and "Hawaiian Air" are big, summer-y and quite determined to get parties started. However, the less bombastic tracks (such as the title song) and more experimental attempts ("True Love") hint at an even more promising future for the band. The lyrics throughout are generally horrible, but that hasn't stopped many other bands from turning out high-quality pop. Pala may not be the album of the year, but it's certainly worth hearing and bodes well for a band that was in danger of becoming "just another Brit-rock band."

Simon's Grade:



#2
W
Planningtorock
DFA

Full disclosure time: I know very little about Planningtorock, aka Janine Rostron. This Berlin-based English performer first came to my attention through her collaboration with the Knife on last year's Tomorrow, in a Year, an insanely ambitious electro-opera about Charles Darwin. However, that brief exposure, combined with some positive reviews of her new album W convinced me to check her music out for myself. Long story short, I'm very glad I did. The Knife remains the best comparison here, since Rostron is another female musician who electronically distorts her voice beyond any recognizable gender. Dramatic, artful and perhaps a bit indulgent, this is very theatrical music, far removed from anyone's idea of pop accessibility. However, if you have the patience and/or interest in more avant-garde music, tracks such as "Doorway" and the exceedingly odd "Manifesto" can be quite rewarding. Give W a listen, form your own opinion and decide from there.

Simon's Grade:



#3
Brilliant! Tragic!
Art Brut
Downtown Records

Back in 2005, Art Brut seemed like the next great hope for garage bands. On their debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, frontman Eddie Argos and his band of misfit musicians sang about the simplest things in the simplest ways possible and the result was eighty types of charming. But then we got a second album... and a third... and now we have Brilliant! Tragic!, the latest in a long line of Art Brut albums that are only full of disappointment. This is a band that announced their arrival on the music scene by screaming "formed a band! We formed a band!" but are now recording dreary intro tracks like "Clever, Clever Jazz," where Argos shouts about jazz appreciation for a few directionless minutes. Likewise, the softer tracks, such as "Lost Weekend," can't measure up to the "Emily Kane"s of albums past. It's never fair to constantly measure a band's latest songs against the stuff that made them famous... but in Art Brut's case, each new track only reminds us fans that we're never going to get another Bang Bang Rock & Roll ever again. Forgive me for being bitter about that.

Simon's Grade: