Of Montreal - False Priest

I've never really loved an Of Montreal album. The closest I've gotten was with their debut Cherry Peel, and that was during their lo-fi-guitar-pop-with-pretty-melodies phase back in the 90s. Other than that, I love individual Of Montreal songs, like Disconnect the Dots, Sink the Seine, Gronlandic Edit, A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger, and even Id Engager from their previous album Skeletal Lamping, which was slightly disappointing. But never a whole album.

False Priest is different, however. There aren't any specific songs that I love on it, but not any that I strongly dislike either. In other words, nothing stands out for me on this very animated record, which isn't entirely a bad thing. The songs on False Priest are more consistent with each other, and seem to flow much more smoothly than on Hissing Fauna, or Skeletal Lamping. This makes it their most accessible pop album to date, and it's pretty hard for a band like Of Montreal to be considered 'accessible'.

The high points of this album are in the lyrics, which sound best when Kevin Barnes sings them. Most of the lyrics are about teenage romances, and random experiences. They're pretty funny though, like most Of Montreal lyrics. Here he sings about a girlfriend throwing his beta fish out the window, female erections, sexual innuendo related to playgrounds, and a bunch of other bizarrely hilarious topics.

It almost seems like Kevin Barnes was spending a little too much time on the lyrics rather than making some memorable melodies. But all negativity aside, I really enjoyed listening to False Priest, and I think it's an improvement from Skeletal Lamping. Give it a listen.

Funniest track: Our Riotous Defects



-Julian

Belle and Sebastian - Write about Love

Some things take time. For Scottish twee pop legends Belle and Sebastian, it was releasing their eighth studio album after four years apart. For me, it was figuring out what to say about it.

There are remnants of Belle and Sebastian’s genre-defining 90s sounds on Write about Love that we haven’t heard since long before their 06 release The Life Pursuit. Although not a compromise of their old and new sounds, Write about Love sits somewhere in the middle of the Belle and Sebastian spectrum.

90s releases If You’re Feeling Sinister and The Boy with the Arab Strap were built on mellow guitar and soft vocals. The early 00s led to a poppier Dear Catastrophe Waitress and the extremely upbeat bursting 06 release The Life Pursuit. Now we have Write about Love, an album that doesn’t quite sit anywhere comfortably in the B&S timeline. The band’s sound is more mature than their most recent work. Their upbeat pop grooves have mellowed and are now more relaxed, taking their time to say what they’re trying to say. Their slower ballads are now flushed out, with more powerful instrumentals. On Write about Love, Belle and Sebastian take their time when they go fast and hurry things along when they slow down.

Sarah Martin is, for the first time, the lead vocalist as she sings on a majority of the album. However, we can still hear Murdoch as his harmonies nestle between Martin’s vocals and tight instrumentals.

Belle and Sebastian have always been crafting cheeky little pop tunes. To twee fans, Scots, and Scottish twee fans, among others, these guys are legends. It is difficult, therefore, to try and pick at Write about Love like any other album. To me it just seems less important to critique each song individually than it is to recognize this album for the accomplishment that it is.



-Owen

Due Date

The latest film from comedy heavyweight Todd Philips, writer and director of last years hit The Hangover, comes the new comedy starring Zach Galifinakis and Robert Downey Jr. Downey plays an expecting father put on the no-fly list in Atlanta, a day before his wife is due in L.A. He catches a ride with Galifinakis and his masturbating bulldog. My colleague Julian and I have followed Galifinakis's career a while before The Hangover and we were pumped to see another awkward and insane character. I was surprised to see that Galifinakis did not have the same effect on me as The Hangover and it really seemed that Philips was saving the good material for The Hangover 2, out next summer. Downey brought an unsurprising charming and witty protagonist as usual and having you rooting for him the whole time. The film was a silly dude comedy that made me laugh out loud, but was not as much of a revolutionary comedy as The Hangover.
My review: B

-Brendan

Matt & Kim - Sidewalks

I'll admit, at first I didn't really dig this album, mainly because Sidewalks is much more electronically-based than the two previous Matt & Kim albums. Each song is extremely immaculate and much synthier than their other songs, which makes them hard to get used to. Also, it seemed a bit over-produced. But several listens later, I realised how catchy it really is.

Almost every song has a high replay value, and I think that outweighs any bad mainstream pop vibes that I get from it. There are some songs that put me off a bit, specifically the peppy opener Block After Block, and Good For Great. But other than that, Sidewalks is a fun record that's chock-full of hooks and catchy tunes that shine as bright as the smiles on Matt and Kim's faces when they play live. I think Matt & Kim are headed in a positive direction.

Favorite tracks: Cameras, Where You're Coming From, Northeast, Wires, Ice Melts



-Julian

Fang Island - Fang Island

Fang Island are young, loud, and immature. What’s not to like? Jamming out on synthesizers and guitars with thirty-year-old amps, these guys make a lot of noise. Dream of Dreams and Careful Crossers open the album well with surprisingly tight arrangements of vocal harmonies and arpeggio guitar lines. Their sound is tastefully rough around the edges at times, giving a great raw feel, which fits really well with their sound. No steam is lost in the middle of the record with Daisy and The Illinois recorded exclusively to make you want to turn your volume knobs to maximum. Matt and Kim influences can be picked up on Life Coach, another loud tune. The young cymbal smashers and distortion punks are weighed down only by their main asset, rawness. It’s a great album at times, but occasionally, especially on the later tracks, they make you wish that they had listened to the track they just recorded before they threw it on the album.



-Owen