SOUND BITES

The obnoxiously long title of Smashing Pumpkins' eighth album (or the first volume of it, I guess?), and its status as the first with most of the original lineup since 2000, might imply that it's a much bigger deal than it is. At eight songs and just under 32 minutes, it's a very slight return. It's also mostly free of the pretension that has bogged down much of their previous work; there are no epic-scale song suites, no wild tangents to go off on, just a batch of songs that get right to the heart of the matter and make way for the next one. In this respect, it's really a rather impressive display of restraint; given the attention this record was going to garner, it would have been easy to stretch things out to a bloated mess. That "Vol. 1" descriptor may prove me wrong on that last point eventually, but Shiny and Oh So Bright in its current incarnation is a concise and compact serving that may not blow old-school fans away or convince any of Billy ...

With their fourth album, Mumford and Sons have decided to take another step away from their folk-rock beginnings, this time playing around with electronics and infusing some modern sensibilities into their once charmingly old fashioned sound. While it's commendable for a band of their stature to take some chances at this stage of their journey (and only three years removed from taking a big chance with their last album), at a certain point a band starts to lose their identity; their status as unwilling poster boys for what became a veritable hipster phenomenon notwithstanding, by dulling and standardizing their approach on Wilder Mind Mumford and Sons chose to blend into the sonic landscape rather than lead it in a new direction. On Delta , an album-length exercise in homogenization, Mumford and Sons showcase the maturity and melodic strengths that they're well known for, and the results are pleasant enough in moderation. However, much like Wilder Mind , there are a handf...

This post concludes my rapid fire run of half-assed reviews, and pretty much brings us up to date. ARKELLS Rally Cry October 19, 2018 • Universal Highlights  Hand Me Downs •  Relentless •  Company Man The fifth album from Hamilton rockers Arkells seeks to build on the momentum from smash stopgap single Knocking At the Door by piling on big hooks, slick production and blatant mainstream aspirations. They've been going in this direction for some time while maintaining the essence of their sound; it's sort of made them the scrappy underdogs who you can't help but root for. Now that they've made it, it's just a little disappointing to learn just how eager they are to scrub away virtually all trace of what they used to be in an effort to grasp that brass ring. DISTURBED Evolution October 19, 2018 • Reprise Highlights  Are You Ready •  A Reason to Fight •  Already Gone Somehow, someway, Disturbed have survived the nu-metal backlash and carved out ...

Muse have never been shy about their shtick; whereas most bands are content to go about their business and evolve their sound from album to album, Muse often goes for the hard turns. Since rising to prominence worldwide with their third album Absolution fifteen years ago, they've constantly tinkered with their sound, infusing their subsequent albums with Europop ( Black Holes and Revelations ), symphonic suites ( The Resistance ), dubstep ( The 2nd Law ) and full-fledged wartime paranoia ( Drones ). Throughout all of it, as ridiculous as the whole thing was getting, Muse presented each of these projects with a seriousness that begged uncertainty about their creative decision making. Was Matt Bellamy really so concerned about drones? Is this the time or place for a 12-minute symphony? Does the world need so much wub-wub accompanying this thinkpiece on thermodynamics? With their eighth album, it appears as though Muse finally admits just how campy they've become and decide...

Designed to play out like a mixtape, Laura Jane Grace's debut album with backing band The Devouring Mothers is sonically restless to say the least; its fourteen songs rarely sound alike, with this familiar group of musicians (The Devouring Mothers are drummer Atom Willard, also of Against Me!, and recent AM! producer Marc Jacob Hudson) gleefully crate digging for inspiration and coming up with a host of influences. Naturally, a primary touchstone is Against Me!, with which Grace has been ringleader for twenty years or so now. That said, there is less of the tension and anguish present here, and Laura sounds liberated without the association to AM! and the expectations that come with every new record by the well established band. Bought to Rot , without any real precedent set, is loose, free flowing, often funny and always fun. Nowhere is this more apparent than on mid-album highlight I Hate Chicago , during which pretty much every Chicagoan institution is railed against as s...

Dan Mangan's fifth album draws influence from a wide variety of sources, but perhaps none more so than family life. The father of two strips some of his arrangements back on More or Less , leaving many songs to stand on a bare frame; at times, the results feel a little slight (as in the very hushed but otherwise fine Lay Low ), but more often than not this approach allows for direct, honest and starkly charming songs. "Simple and effective" isn't the entire name of the game (although sparsely arranged tracks like Just Fear and Which Is It are very, very effective); by times, more sound creeps into the proceedings, calling to mind Radiohead at their turn-of-the-century electro-renegade best ( Peaks & Valleys , Can't Not and Never Quiet wear this particular influence most plainly). Perhaps the album's most thrilling section, however, is its midpoint; Cold in the Summer rides an easy groove and a bright melody down Father John Misty Avenue, while Tr...

To talk about Greta Van Fleet, hailed by many as modern saviours of rock n' roll, is to talk about the fine line between homage and parody. It's often difficult for a band to fall into the "sounds just like" trap, because once it happens, you're pretty much stuck. Joshua Kiszka sounds a lot like Robert Plant, and his band sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin, ergo Greta Van Fleet "sounds just like" Led Zeppelin, and now they're stuck. The problem with this thinking is, there's nowhere safe for Greta Van Fleet to go on their debut album; stray from what drew people to you and you risk losing their attention, play up the classic comparison and you risk being drowned out by your detractors, most of whom are offended fans of the band you've been permanently linked with. On Anthem of the Peaceful Army , Greta Van Fleet sound just like Led Zeppelin. Which opens up that whole can of worms, the one in which Zeppelin aficionados feel insulted that a ...

The rise of Twenty One Pilots to mainstream popularity (thanks to hit singles from 2015's Blurryface and the Suicide Squad soundtrack smash Heathens ) painted the duo in the eyes of some as middle-of-the-road pop rockers, and there was concern among some circles that success would result in a less quirky, more pop-leaning, opportunistic (popportunistic?) fifth album. Those fears are mostly proven unfounded by Trench , a rich and interesting record that comes out of the gate with perhaps one of the most against-the-grain single choices they could have made; Jumpsuit crackles with nervous energy and packs a host of shifts in style into its four minutes. That this standoff of a single shot to the top of the alternative charts quicker than any song this decade perhaps speaks to just how starved the format is for something more challenging. Trench has lots of interesting flavours for listeners to sample; there's the rapid-fire rap of Levitate , the off-kilter bounce of Mor...

On paper, Fucked Up's fifth full-length album is a return to form; revisiting the story from 2011's David Comes to Life and offering a sprawling 18-song set that can't be contained to one CD sure looks like the Fucked Up we know and love. However, it doesn't take long to figure out just how different Dose Your Dreams is from previous records; there's a psychedelic cloud permeating this record, and a wide breadth of instrumentation we might not be used to hearing. For instance, toward the end of Raise Your Voice Joyce , what seems like a standard punk rager gets dreamy courtesy of a wild saxophone solo. Electronic flourishes are present throughout, and some tracks (like the wonderfully groovy title track and the thumping left turn Mechanical Bull ) have a hypnotically danceable quality to them. There's also a pronounced step back from Damian Abraham, especially as the album plays out and the mic is handed to a wider and wider array of guest vocalists. Tha...

After a brief fling with non-fiction in the form of 2015's The Color Before the Sun , Coheed and Cambria's eighth album (and first with Roadrunner) immediately and handily squashes any apprehension about their devotion to The Amory Wars . After five albums (and one side album) concerning the incredibly complicated story arc, The Color Before the Sun turns out to have been a one-off, a pause to recenter the author of these grand tales before diving headlong into another round or five. At nearly eighty minutes, The Unheavenly Creatures (reportedly the first of five planned albums to tell the story of Vaxis ) is only slightly shorter than The Afterman , their 2012/2013 double album; however, unless listeners are extremely patient, the option to split this album's two halves by six months isn't really an option. It stands to reason, then, that The Unheavenly Creatures is a slog to get through and difficult to stay invested in. The thing is, Coheed and Cambria have...

(This post is a continuation from the previous two "catch-up" posts, and covers albums I didn't get around to giving a proper review to in August and September.) BLUE OCTOBER I Hope You're Happy August 17, 2018 • Up/Down Highlights  Daylight •  I Want to Come Back Home •  I Hope You're Happy Remembered by most as the one-hit wonders behind 2006's Hate Me , Blue October has soldiered on to build a small but devoted fan base and an impressive resumé; I Hope You're Happy is their ninth album, and fourth to be fully funded by crowdsourcing. It also features some sharp songwriting and tasteful pop elements that could absolutely blindside listeners who have only heard Hate Me , but longtime fans will just smile and enjoy it like they have the other eight. SLAVES Acts of Fear and Love August 17, 2018 • Virgin Highlights  Cut and Run •  Magnolia •  Chokehold Scuzzy UK duo Slaves' third album finds them trimming the fat a bit (at nine tracks, ...

Now, for the continuation of my "catch-up" series of quick reviews; it's meant to bring me up to date and help me wade through the backlog of unfinished reviews from this year, so these should be considered more as passing nods of acknowledgment than fully fleshed out thoughts on the albums below. I've scored 'em anyway but, as you'll see, I didn't skip over any Album of the Year contenders here. MANIC STREET PREACHERS Resistance is Futile April 13, 2018 • Columbia Highlights  People Give In •  International Blue •  Liverpool Revisited This far along into their career, Manic Street Preachers don't exactly owe anyone reminders of why they're regarded as one of the UK's landmark bands of the last thirty years; and yet, they still manage to find ways to creep back into the collective consciousness (admittedly, much more so at home than abroad). On their thirteenth album, the trio remain committed to their rock roots while adding colourful k...

Between work, all of the changes in my personal life and the fact that time refuses to slow down for anyone, a lot of records fell through the cracks this year. This post is an attempt to play catch-up in a way that allows me to say a few words about most of the stuff I've neglected in 2018 but also won't take me until Christmas to complete. As you'll see, not everything in this list was bad or uninteresting; I simply didn't get around to doing proper reviews on these albums for one reason or another. Anyway, the more time I waste explaining why I didn't review things, the less time I have to review things. So, let's review things. AWOLNATION Here Come the Runts February 2, 2018 • Red Bull Highlights  Here Come the Runts •  Passion •  Handyman More off-kilter pop/rock from the Sail hitmakers; their third record is a little scattershot but, when it comes together as beautifully as it does on the title track, it's pure fun to listen to. FRANZ FE...