My thoughts on Sufjan Stevens "Silver & Gold" Xmas EPs

As someone who unapologetically enjoys Christmas music (both religious and secular) and is a huge fan of Sufjan Stevens, I take his Christmas albums very seriously (I’ll point out that my second post on this blog was about Sufjan’s Christmas EPs). Every year around the holidays, I look forward to bringing out Songs For Christmas, so I’m thrilled to have five more volumes of music to play with today’s release of Silver & Gold.

With Sufjan Stevens’ evolving music sensibilities, this is clearly a much different collection than Songs for Christmas, but (for the most part) it’s consistently excellent, delivering many songs that stand with his finest work. So here’s my unfiltered thoughts on Volumes 6-10 of Sufjan’s Holiday EPs with one recommended MP3 from each EP available for download.

Vol. 6 – Gloria!

Gloria! is a collaboration with The National‘s Aaron and Bryce Dressner and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, and much of it was recorded in attic in Aaron’s Brooklyn home which gives it a quaint, community atmosphere. It’s certainly as traditionally folky as any of Sufjan’s music, and with the Dressner’s contributions, it features some gorgeous guitarwork. The highlight is the second track which is really two songs, the upbeat, fiddle-happy “Lumberjack Christmas” and the lovely, introspective “No One Can Save You From Christmases Past”. The EP ends with a wonderful banjo sing-a-long to “Auld Lang Syne” which features a singing saw solo.

MP3 Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past

Vol. 7. – I Am Santa’s Helper!

This is by far the oddest entry into Sufjan’s Christmas albums, sounding more like his unpolished early album A Sun Came than anything he’s released in the last five years. It features 23 mostly original tracks, most of them less than 90 seconds in length and vary between solemn hymn-like tunes and ramshackle electric guitar one-takes like “Ding-A-Ling-A-Ring-A-Ling” and “Mr Frosty Man”. Overall it’s kind of a mess, but there’s a few keepers from it, notably “I Am Santa’s Helper” which samples part of “Majesty Snowbird” and “Christmas Woman”, a cheerful, bouncy tune that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of the earlier Christmas EPs.

MP3 I Am Santa’s Helper

Vol. 8 – Infinity Voyage

This album is Sufjan in full-on Age of Adz mode, which is a great thing if you love that album as much as most sensible people. Infinity Voyage was available on the internet previously but the songs have all been rearranged and rerecorded for this boxset, definitely a huge improvement. This volume is full of highlights from the majestic version of “Angels We Have Heard On High”, to the gorgeous original song “Christmas In The Room”, a funky cover of Prince’s “Alphabet St.” and an an amazing rendition of “Joy To The World” that includes part of “Impossible Soul”. The EP concludes with Sufjan at his most experimental, with the 15-minute “Child With The Star On His Head”.

MP3 Joy To The World

Vol. 9 – Let It Snow!

This volume seems to be one where Sufjan decided to record a bunch of classic secular Christmas tunes such as “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, “Let It Snow”, “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, “Sleigh Ride” and “Holly Jolly Christmas” (if you’re anti-religious songs this may be the EP for you) and they’re all predictably solid renditions. There’s also a few original tracks, two short, ethereal songs “Sleigh in the Moon” and “Christmas Face” and an Adz-like electronic tune “Xmas Spirit Catcher”.

MP3 Xmas Spirit Catcher

Vol. 10 – Christmas Unicorn

As with Songs for Christmas, Sufjan ends this boxset with a truly amazing and ambitious EP. The volume includes a triumphant take on “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, his Vesper Stamper-collab “Up on the Housetop” and an exuberant rendition of Muppet Christmas classic “We Need A Little Christmas”. What really shines about this volume though, is the last two tracks, “Justice Delivers Its Death”, a haunting acoustic track reminiscent of “John Wayne Gacy Jr” and the incredible “Christmas Unicorn”, a 12-minute epic with introspective lyrics describing Sufjan’s unique relationship with Christmas. The track builds to a breathtaking climax that mixes all the orchestral and electronic instrumentation with an exhilarating cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, a feat I’m sure only Sufjan could pull off.

MP3 Christmas Unicorn

Silver & Gold is available for purchase on vinyl / CD and includes stickers, temporary tattoos, posters, ornaments, coloring books and songbooks. The entire 58-song collection is available to stream here.

Don't Curse Me: Frank Ocean's "Channel Orange"

It is rare that a new artist fulfills their early promise. Often, an untested talent will falter under the expectations heaped upon them. We remark to ourselves that we knew they did not have what it takes, not realizing that we were part of the cause. Artists are then left with a choice: pack it in or plug away? They may want to cut their losses, or they could move forward and hope their misstep was a fluke, a trick of pressure.

Expectations were certainly high for Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, but Ocean seems to exist outside the cycle. Perhaps it is a result of being jerked around the label system; his debut was shelved — twice. Or perhaps his world is isolated; removed from hype and cynics, he is free to see his vision through without disturbance. No matter the cause, Ocean has created a record that feels complete, that rare accomplishment of an artist capturing things exactly as imagined.

Ceremonials

With the release of Florence + The Machine’s long-awaited sophomore album, it is now clearer than ever that Florence Welch is the real deal. The pure enormity of Ceremonials—in terms of both length and sound—is truly astounding. The catharsis-driven album has more of a distinct, cohesive theme than Lungs, but seems almost a little too perfect and emotionally exhausting, lacking the rawness and faint apprehension heard in her debut.

Ceremonials takes Florence’s baroque-pop to a new level, with the opening three tracks immediately starting with a truly phenomenal bang. “Shake It Up” is undoubtedly this album’s “Dog Days Are Over”, with its early crescendo and accessible and catchy chorus reaching titanic proportions both vocally and instrumentally.

“Breaking Down” and “Lover to Lover” are placed perfectly in the middle, providing the listener with a break from the intensity with mellower, more airy melodies. While “Breaking Down” isn’t without drama, it’s drama of a happier sort, conveyed through airy violins, making it one of my favorite songs on the album. “Lover to Lover” maintains the same youthful tone, as the upbeat, vintage piano melody sounds as though it could be the opening sequence of a movie taking place in the 50’s, as Flo sounds almost Aretha Franklin-esque (Yeah, I just made that comparison, she’s that good).

“No Light, No Light” showcases one of the most consistent themes throughout the album, with layered harmonies and organs akin to that of a gospel choir. Florence’s chords are in full-force, staying true to her ethereal sound, reminding me of my all-time favorite, “Cosmic Love.” Continuing the choral, gospel vibes is album-closer “Leave My Body.” If the album started with a bang, it ended with a grand finale only fit for a 4th of July firework show. With backup singers echoing every line, “Leave My Body” makes for a perfect closing song.

At times, Ceremonials is lyrically lackluster. The line “Just keep following the heartlines on your head/keep it up I know you can” heard in “Heartlines” pales in comparison to the lyrical mastery displayed in, sorry to mention it again, “Cosmic Love.” Additionally, the album also seems to overlook the value in the simplistic beauty of less instrumentally dynamic songs (“You’ve Got The Love”) and instead seems to strive to make every track as intense as possible.

Overall, the album lacks an element of both mystery and fragility—and therefore sexiness (a la “I’m Not Calling You A Lair)—but in all fairness, it will take time to develop the same emotional attachment to Ceremonials as I did Lungs. It’s expected when reviewing albums to listen to them again and again—This was beyond easy with Ceremonials, as it’s a truly magnificent work of art.

MP3 Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out
MP3 Florence + The Machine – Lover To Lover

Buy Ceremonials at Amazon
Listen at Spotify

Radical Face – The Family Tree: The Roots

After listening to Radical Face‘s second full-length album a handful of times, I wrote down what I considered to be the best four songs. I then told a friend of mine, whose opinions on music I value greatly, to listen to the album. He wrote back to me a day later also noting what he considered to be the creme de la creme of the 11 tracks. Our lists were identical. Based on past disagreements, I’m certain that our musical tastes aren’t nearly that aligned, nor do I believe that it was sheer coincidence. While none of the songs on The Family Tree: The Roots are unsatisfactory, the tracks are either outstanding or simply forgettable.

As a whole, the long-awaited follow-up album to Ghosts (2007), is the first of The Family Tree trilogy, and is a solid, clear departure from frontman Ben Cooper’s work with Electric President. Unlike the electronic, indie pop style of Electric President, Cooper’s solo project channels more of an Iron & Wine meets The Middle East vibe with Cooper’s delicate vocals and gentle guitar strums.

The narrative of the trilogy follows the Northcotes’, a fictitious family living in the 1800’s. The Roots focuses on the first two generations of “The Family Tree.” In an attempt to be as historically accurate as possible, Cooper contains himself to only using musical instruments that were available in the 19th century- an idea that is compelling yet limiting. To Cooper’s credit, the album does convey an antique feeling, but as a result, lacks variation. A common theme throughout the folky and beautifully choral album is each track’s pattern of crescendo, in which the song starts slow, builds in intensity–with an increased tempo, paired with Cooper’s distantly rising pitch–and then teeters softly back down the hill.

“Black Eyes” is without a doubt the most climactic, emotion-provoking, and melodically captivating track of the album, sewn together with dramatic piano, heavy guitar, and vocals that fade in an out of a faraway realm. The other stand-out tracks of The Roots, “Ghost Towns” (with an accordion to die for), “A Pound of Flesh”, and “Always Gold”, all mysteriously manage to bring their own indescribably unique elements to the mix, despite following strikingly similar outlines. At times, Cooper’s vocals prove to be the most powerful instrument of all, showcasing his impressive range and adding spontaneity amidst frequent handclaps and instrumental turns.

The Family Tree: The Roots is powerful and solemn without being depressing. And while the album as a whole may be missing a distinct element or twist, it is also home to a handful of truly spectacular songs. I’m inclined to assume that the simplicity of The Roots is merely the foundation for the more dynamic and intriguing second and third albums to come.

MP3 Radical Face – A Pound of Flesh
MP3 Radical Face – Always Gold

Get The Family Tree: The Roots at iTunes.

I Want That You Are Always Happy

After having listened to Australian indie folk band, The Middle East‘s EP, Recordings Of The Middle East over and over again for quite some time now, I was more than excited to hear that would be releasing their first full-length album. I immediately jumped at the chance to write a review of their newly released 14-track album, but upon listening to I Want That You Are Always Happy, it took longer than I had expected to fully wrap my mind around it, as each track exudes a very different feeling and vibe than the one proceeding it.

The second track on the album, “My Grandma Was Pearl Hall” has a very spooky, ominous tone with its dramatic piano and deep vocals, greatly dissenting from the delicate nature of Recording Of The Middle East. I enjoyed hearing The Middle East experiment with a vastly different tone, and was curious to see where the rest of the album would take me. The drama continued midway through the album with “Sydney To Newcastle” which opened with what sounded like a creaking swingset and radio feed in the background, juxtaposed with soft yet intense piano, giving the song a 1940’s feeling. Again, this wasn’t what I had expected to hear going into the album, but I enjoyed in nonetheless.

Despite the album’s intense songs, The Middle East still made time for fun, upbeat tracks as well. “Jesus Came To My Birthday Party” is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, with its catchy guitar hooks and vocals, brought to life by sole female singer Bree Tranter, giving the track a refreshing element necessary to make a fully rounded-out album. The track “Months” reintroduces the soft, airiness of Recordings of The Middle East, giving off a Fleet Foxes meets Sufjan Stevens feel. After listening to such completely different songs, pinpointing the heart of the album became impossible, as each track maintains a truly unique sense of individuality that allows them to stand on their own without leaning on other songs for support.

Another one of my favorite tracks, “Hunger Song” also happens to break away from the solemnity of the album, with its beautiful harmonies and outstanding violin and banjo channeling the bands earlier indie-folk tendencies, leading me to believe that this is where the band is still most comfortable. However I applaud The Middle East for trying something new, as I Want That You Are Always Happy easily one of my favorite albums of the year so far.

MP3 The Middle East – Hunger Song
MP3 The Middle East – Jesus Came To My Birthday Party

Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting

Upon completion of their third album, Young Galaxy took the next logical step: The band sent the songs 3,500 miles away to be finished by a notoriously secretive producer. Young Galaxy waited for nine months while Dan Lissvik reshaped their songs and breathed chilly new life into them. The result is Shapeshifting, a lavish record with the capacity to lull you into a narcotic haze.

Song titles like “The Angels Are Surely Weeping” and “Blown Minded” give a clue as to what Shapeshifting holds. It’s a dreamy, hypnotic album packed with psychedelic imagery and subdued grooves that seem innocuous but prove to have staying power over repeat listens. In fact, Shapeshifting is an album that actually takes some time to fully absorb; it’s easy to let the thing fly by without a thought at first, but songs like “For Dear Life” and “B.S.E.” reward immersion.

Then again, it’s easy to get swept away by some of the immediate gems Shapeshifting has to offer. “We Have Everything” is a balearic blast of energy with its hands to the sun. The chorus doesn’t appear until over halfway through, but once it does there is no choice but surrender. On the other hand, “Peripheral Visionaries” is a laid-back mutant strain of disco. The song is a slow simmer of harmonies until everything falls away, leaving the band chanting towards the sky while the song builds back up to a subtle, but magnificent, climax.

It’s unclear how much Lissvik embellished these songs, which says a lot for his skill as a producer. Rather than leave his fingerprints all over the album he stays out of the way, adding adornment as needed. Young Galaxy took a huge risk with this unconventional production method, but it paid off in a huge way and the result is collaboration at its finest. It’s uncertain what Shapeshifting would be without everyone involved, but together they have created one of the most enjoyable albums of the year.

Young Galaxy – We Have Everything
Young Galaxy – Peripheral Visionaries

Burst Apart

While the The Antlers previous album, the catharsis-driven Hospice, centers around a gripping narrative of a relationship between a hospice worker and patient on the brink of death, their follow-up album, the newly released Burst Apart focuses on the balance between love, hate, and loneliness in a far less direct manner. However despite its broader lens, Burst Apart still maintains the sentimentality of Hospice that turned so many listeners into ardent fans.

The opening track, “I Don’t Want Love” immediately indicated to me that this would be another album filled with poignant and emotion-driven lyrics, beginning with the lines “You wanna climb up the stairs/ I wanna push you back down.” Throughout the album frontman Peter Silberman constantly switches between exuding feelings of resilience and fragility, as his brilliant falsetto sends the listener into an alternate universe of reflection. Silberman’s solitary dreamlike cooing heard on a number of tracks on the album is shown in full force in “No Windows,” casting a soft shadow over the song, capturing the true tender essence of the album.

In addition to Silberman’s gorgeous vocals, sprinkled throughout the Burst Apart are delicately placed horns, brought to prominence in “Rolled Together” and “Tiptoe,” as well as distinct electronic textures, most noticeable in the ambient “French Exit.” The metaphor-driven closing track, “Putting the Dog to Sleep” thematically channels Hospice as Silberman asks his lover to “Prove to me/I’m not gonna die alone…While my trust in you/Is a dog with a broken leg.”

Burst Apart is by no means a half-hearted attempt at recreating the melancholy of Hospice, as it is carefully crafted to perfection with its fine mastery of somber lyrics juxtaposed with ethereal guitar swoops and mist-covered drum loops, thus indicating the Brooklyn trio’s tremendous growth both instrumentally and psychologically.

MP3 The Antlers – I Don’t Want Love
MP3 The Antlers – Putting The Dog To Sleep

Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Much has already been written on Colin Stetson’s method of creating his new album, so I’ll just give the quick version: with the exception of the vocals, everything you’re hearing is saxophone. Stetson uses clever microphone placement to capture a wide range of sounds from his instrument, and as if that restriction wasn’t enough, he also recorded the songs live, in single takes, with no overdubs. But even without knowledge of the method used to create it, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges would still be an incredible accomplishment.

While the description above may lead you to think that the album is fairly transparent, Judges is deceptive in its simplicity. The music is incredibly dynamic and carries hefty weight; Stetson creates and destroys entire universes with a single breath. Judges is a terror you cannot outrun, the songs carry such force that you can feel Stetson’s energy coming through the speakers.

Judges can be quite a visceral and unnerving experience. “A Dream of Water” in particular is especially disconcerting; Laurie Anderson tells of an imagined apocalypse while Stetson raises a tempest around her. It’s oddly disturbing and realigns the perception of the album as some kind of hallucinatory soundtrack to the end of days. This is only solidified later in the album when Shara Worden’s spectral wail reveals itself on “Lord I Just Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes”. When Anderson and Worden come together on the penultimate “Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun”, they help create one of the album’s truly transcendental moments.

It isn’t all calamity and disaster, though. Stetson is a master of tension and knows just when to let the light shine though the squall as on “All the Days I’ve Missed You (Ilaij I)” and “All the Colors Bleached to White”. Moments like these add some much needed buoyancy to the album and help to dispel the oppression of the chaos.

I won’t go into talk of Stetson pushing an instrument into new territory, because it doesn’t need to be said. It’s obvious from the first seconds of “Judges” that Stetson is going to take a well worn apparatus to places only he can vision. And I won’t go into talk about timbre and phrasing and the like, because, frankly, I don’t know enough about the subjects to speak to Stetson’s abilities. Such talk misses the point, though. As technically impressive as New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is, its real power comes from Stetson’s skill at conjuring raw emotion.

MP3 Colin Stetson – Judges
MP3 Colin Stetson – A Dream of Water

Braids – Native Speaker

There’s a reason this review of Braids’ debut album is coming two months after the release. Native Speaker is not an easy album to pin down; just when I thought I had a grip on it, it would change forms and slip through my fingers.

The songs on Native Speaker are more biological than mechanical; they begin with a breathe of life, quite literally in the case of the title track, and develop and grow organically before ultimately fading away into the beyond. The songs’ amoebic nature makes it possible for the shape of the record to change, depending on mood, environment, and context.

On the surface these songs are bursting with a shimmering beauty. The sparkling arpeggios of “Lemonade” are a perfect example, building and bubbling gradually before breaking apart into pure ether. But that beauty belies sinister undertones; the songs lull you into comfort, but they also seem capable of corruption. Braids only hint at this and never let the songs fully embrace their nefarious nature, demonstrating effortless dexterity as a unit.

The band is fond of slight flourishes, like the backwards tones that announces “Glass Deers”, but they never get bogged down in studio wizardry. Instead they deftly integrate these plumes of sound, showing considerable restraint for a band so young. The results wash over you like a psychedelic prism, catching different glimpses of refracted sound on each pass. This makes some things even better when you finally put the pieces together, like the subtle climax of “Lammicken” which finds singer Katie Lee wailing while a distorted future war of synthesizers erupts around her.

It’s these kinds of moments that finds me going back to Native Speaker again and again, trying to discover what the album has in store this time. Moments that seem innocuous at first blush can metamorphose and stupefy the next time around. That a fledgling group proves so adept and this kind of alchemy is something quite noteworthy.

MP3 Braids – Lemonade
MP3 Braids – Lammicken

Buy Native Speaker at Kanine Records.

Clams Casino

While trying to will the reviews I’ve been working on to finish themselves last night, I downloaded Clams Casino’s instrumental mixtape on a whim. And since you’re reading this right now, you can figure out how that affected what I was working on.

Most of the tracks here were beats made for blog-rap superstars like Lil B, Main Attrakionz, and the recently OK-to-like-now Soulja Boy. You may think that instrumentals free from the rappers they were made for might be a bit stale or boring, but Clams Casino’s beats take on a whole new life without their vocal counterparts. Given room to breathe, the songs conjure up all sorts of energy and emotions beyond the blunt and based we have come to expect from the names usually associated with them.

“Motivation”, originally made for Lil B, is maybe the best example of what’s here. Majestic, hazy synthesizers ride over floor-rattling bass and intermittent percussion while vocal snippets weave in and out like a fog. And just when you think things are getting out of hand, the beat drops long enough to let you catch your breath before smacking you over the head again. Every time the beat kicks back in there’s even more going on, until the whole thing threatens to collapse under its own weight. But Clams Casino ends it before things get too out of hand.

“Numb” is an unreleased beat and is easily one of the best things here. I’m not sure why it was never used, but listening to it I could easily understand why Clams Casino might have wanted to keep it for himself. Sometimes we just don’t want to let go of what we have created, whatever the reason may be. Or maybe no one wanted it. If that’s the case, then it’s their loss and our gain.

You can download the entire mixtape right over here.

MP3 Clams Casino – Motivation
MP3 Clams Casino – Numb