Departing the Sensory

The xx I See You (2017) I get chills Heart's rate multiplies I'm on a different kind of high A rush of blood is not enough I need my feelings set on fire I had a review of this album mostly composed in my head six weeks ago. It was going to be about how I wasn't that impressed, how the brilliance of The xx may have faded in inverse proportion to their age and maturity. I was going to say that the album's only gem "Replica" was a bit ironic, given that the album was failing after all to replicate the success of Coexist and xx . And then I listened one more time. And then another and one after that, and concluded this is an outstanding piece of work. It's at once more profound and more reserved than the earlier work. I've heard people say I See You  is a transition from indie electronic to a more mainstream indie pop, but I don't buy it. Pop music doesn't revolve around lyrics this subtle and haunting. Check out the very awkward perfor...

More album reviews: Spoon Hot Thoughts (2017) I heard somewhere that Spoon is incapable of making a bad album. I think that's essentially true, aside from their first album Telephono, which sucked. Their ninth effort  Hot Thoughts dropped last month, and it's outstanding. I won't say much because so many others have. Needless to say, check it out if you haven't already . Sidenote: see these guys in concert, their show is much more rock and roll than I would have though. Four stars. Thievery Corporation The Temple of I & I  (2017) Thievery Corporation's The Temple of I & I is more transparently cohesive than their other work. The reggae theme that pervades the album works pretty well with the classic Thievery sound, but it somehow also grates on me in more than a few spots. Maybe it's over-produced, and perhaps a little dated. Regardless, the guests on the album can flat out rap and are definitely worth a listen, even if it may be evidence o...

There’s a whole lot of music, and even though most of it’s somewhere between uninspiring and “turn it off now please”, there’s a ton of amazing art given the volume. Filtering through the mass of autotuned garbage is tough though, and over the last few years I’ve come to rely almost exclusively on word of mouth recommendations for a variety of reasons: I’m not too down with mainstream reviewers like Pitchfork or Rolling Stone, the radio is worse than useless, and Google Play’s premium “radio”-like playlists are mostly crap because good algorithms do not good taste make. Here's what I've been listening to this fall. The Record Company Give it Back to You  (2016) This debut from a new LA-based power trio is pure rock and roll. In a modernized original sense of the term. I guess they are making a few waves here and there, one of their singles going to the top of one of the alternative charts and all. And I can see why it did. I hear simple arrangements layered in compelli...