Music Review
Mia Pharaoh by Miniature Tigers
Mia Pharaoh is Miniature Tigers’ third outing, and it serves as proof that the band is actually evolving. Of course, Mia remains an unmistakable Miniature Tigers offering. This time around, though, the songs are longer, a little more full-fleshed, and feature decent production values, relatively speaking. Also, the vocals seem a little more ethereal this go round.
Mia kicks off with the wannabe dance club track “Sex on the Regular.” It’s a pretty catchy song, featuring synth-driven progressions and a funky bass line. The soaring vocals are a nice touch, and help to sell the song’s cheeky take on sex.
Highlights from the album include “Female Doctor,” “Easy as All That,” and the superb “Angel Bath.” “Female Doctor” continues in the same vein as “Sex on the Regular,” in that it’s a generally cheeky song about sex, and also features ethereally soaring vocals, though this time around it swaps out club dance elements for dream pop motifs. “Easy as All That” features a hooky backing track that becomes quite addicting, then delves into a darkly funny chorus. “Angel Bath” is by far the best track on the album, featuring a dreamy chord progression coupled with a dark bass line, and shows just how good Miniature Tigers can be at crafting dream-pop.
Unfortunately, the album is a bit inconsistent at times. “Afternoons with David Hocking” is a mediocre offering, and “Ugly Needs” is decent but longish. “Husbands & Wives” is simply dreadful. However, the rest of the songs are listenable and generally catchy, especially “Cleopatra.” “Boomerang” is an interesting exercise, but it feels a bit longish.
Overall, the album is mostly enjoyable, and it’s good to see that Miniature Tigers is exercising its creative talents. This process occasionally yields sub-par results, but that’s what happens when you take risks. Another thing that happens when you take risks is that you occasionally strike gold, which Miniature Tigers has certainly done on several of their tracks. Sure, some tracks on the album are worth skipping, but most are enjoyable, and worthy of repeat listens to boot.
Grade: B
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“It’s Over Now” by La Sera from Sees the Light
My early favorite from La Sera’s new album. Review to come.
Weekly Top Ten
My ten most listened-to artists for the week ending 5-20-12:
- Bon Iver (58 plays)
- The Beach Boys (43 plays)
- Jack’s Mannequin (36 plays)
- Best Coast (32 plays)
- Beach House (32 plays)
- Lady Danville (31 plays)
- fun. (23 plays)
- La Sera (20 plays)
- State Bird (18 plays)
- Young the Giant (17 plays)
Music Review
Never Joy by Ed Tullett
Say this about Never Joy: it certainly is ambitious. It feels like Tullett spent a decent amount of time listening to For Emma, Forever Ago and then was inspired to make something just like it. In fact, the opening track seems to pay homage to Bon Iver (the song “Lump Sum” in particular). Fortunately, Tullett does not settle for pastiche, choosing instead to forge his own way. In particular, he rejects Justin Vernon’s bassy guitars, and takes some time to come down from his generally ethereal falsetto.
The song “Silver Dive” opens the album, and hints at the album’s ever so slightly unpolished feel. The second track, “Teeth,” is in the same vein. Weirdly, the vocals on these tracks—and the rest of the album’s tracks—feel incredibly polished and well done.
Tullett brings a musical complexity to the album by offering some rather complex guitar riffs and backings—see the intro to “Mezzanine” for an example of this—and tosses in some more traditional folk elements in the mix. If my ear serves me correctly, it would appear that there is the occasional banjo, and possibly dobro in the mix at points. This gives the album a more folk than what’s found on For Emma, but Tullett delights in obscure and vague lyrics, and tosses some Vernon-esque lines throughout the album.
The standout tracks on Never Joy are “OD” and “Thaw.” The former is a slower song that features a simple guitar chord progression coupled with some vocal overdubbing and decent banjo riffing. The latter starts off with tinkling piano melody that slows down and grows a bit darker as the track progresses. Slow and simple seems to work best for Tullett. The songs that get too busy tend to be less enjoyable.
In all, the album is a generally enjoyable listen, though it’s not earthshattering like, say, Bon Iver’s work tends to be. It’s length (61 minutes) lends it to feeling a bit repetitive at times, but it is earnest, which helps to compensate. Fans of Bon Iver, or folk music in general should find this album to be a nice addition to their library, but it’s far from essential. Since you can get it for free, there isn’t much point in passing up on it.
Grade: B-
Up All Night
I was going through my music library and I noticed that I have songs by five different artists that are titled “Up All Night.” Interestingly, none of the songs are covers. The different artists are:
Best Coast [The Only Place]
blink-182 [Neighborhoods]
Drake [Take Care]
One Direction [Up All Night]
Razorlight [Up All Night]
My personal favorite is Razorlight’s, followed closely by Best Coast’s. What do you think of them? Which one is your favorite?
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“Lost in Dreams” by The Society of Rockets from The World Inside EP
Here’s a song I just discovered. I wish I had discovered it sooner, as it sounds like M83 meets The Beach Boys meets a pop version of Bon Iver, which is basically the best mash-up ever. Anyhow, the track is excellent, so take a listen. Or twelve.
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“The Scientist” by Coldplay from A Rush of Blood to the Head
Here’s another song I’m trying to learn how to play on the guitar. I’ve pretty much got it down; all I have to do now is remember all the lyrics when I’m singing.
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“High and Dry” by Radiohead from The Bends
One of a couple songs I’m currently trying to learn how to play on guitar. It’s simpler than it sounds, though the intro is a bit tricky.
Weekly Top Ten
My ten most listened-to artists for the week ending 5-13-12:
- Sleigh Bells (42 plays)
- The Beach Boys (29 plays)
- Miniature Tigers (23 plays)
- Bon Iver (22 plays)
- Mates of State (14 plays)
- Jack’s Mannequin (13 plays)
- Young the Giant (12 plays)
- St. Vincent (11 plays)
- S. Carey (9 plays)
- Radiohead (5 plays)
