May 29, 2011

The Productivity Series - Part One: Caffeine Management

The Productivity Series - How to Do A Lot In 48 Hours
Part One: Caffeine Management
Words by Dirk Calloway

This is a new series, aimed at finding the right corners to cut, when trying to get something completed. I'm no expert, but - as someone who juggles one career in IT and another (much less demanding) professional role running film screenings in Wellington; whilst regularly playing live rock gigs; recording an album; and making my own films too - I think I've learned a few tricks that might be of assistance to other creative folk out there.

The inspiration for this series stems from the V 48 Hours filmmaking competition. I've entered it annually since since 2006. It's a competition that gives you a few compulsory elements (genre, prop, line of dialogue, character, and cinematic technique to include) on a Friday evening and expects you to return with a completed short-film featuring those elements by Sunday night. Since 2008, I've attempted to complete my movie using the medium of animation. This is, obviously, a fairly stupid thing to do. It took Disney six years to make the film Tangled; it's not easy to make cartoons quickly. Just for giggles, I make things more complex for myself by doing it all solo. Again, pretty stupid of me. For an idea of how stupid it is, pay attention to The Simpsons' end-credits next time its on TV: there's  usually an army of Korean animators involved in making 2D images 'move' and 'talk' to each other.

So, how do I get this all done? There is always a corner to be cut, and as a consequence, I've somehow managed to limp 3 minutes' footage over the finishing line each year. For the next few posts on this site, I'm going to explore my favourite short-cuts. Hopefully reading the series will help you boost your own creative productivity as a result. Today's post is about.... caffeine management.


Got a deadline? Need to decrease your intraocular pressure, but increase your level of alertness? Well, that's your problem, and it's not going to be fixed by drinking a plunger's worth of coffee every hour. Don't get me wrong, you can dose up if you've only got a short run to the finishing line, but if you're 48 hours away from completion, you're gonna need to manage your caffeine intake. There are three important time periods to take note of with this drug: 
  • 45 minutes after ingestion your body's finally absorbed it
  • An hour after that first sip, your blood has reached peak caffeination-saturation. From there, it's a downhill glide....
  • 5 hours after you put your mug down, your body has still only removed one half of the caffeine you ingested.
When I'm making a movie over the space of one weekend, I aim to always have half a coffee's worth of caffeine inside me. If it takes 5 hours to get to that place, that means I have to use a simple equation:
In my case, I find that in 48 hours I'm only allowed to consume 9.6 cups of my favourite beverage. No more than that. Apply this formula next time you're in a bind and tied to a desk, and your body will thank you for it!

May 15, 2011

Stats and Analyses of the Top 20 Albums of 2010


Hi. Normal service has nearly resumed. For one last hurrah, we're going to re-cap on the past month, where I undertook a daily challenge of review my chosen Top 20 Albums of 2010. Rather than force you to trawl through them all, I thought it'd be cool to list them in one place, along with links to each of their reviews. I also thought it'd be cool to do some statistical analysis afterwards.So, without further ado, let's get into it...

The Final Top 20 Albums of 2010 were:
  1. MGMT - Congratulations
  2. Sia - We Are Born
  3. Girl Talk - All Day
  4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
  6. The Black Keys - Brothers
  7. NaS and Damian Marley - Distant Relatives
  8. Weezer - Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition)
  9. Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave
  10. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
  11. So So Modern - Crude Futures
  12. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
  13. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Record Collection
  14. Goldfrapp - Head First
  15. Plan B - The Defamation Of Strickland Banks
  16. Michael Jackson - Michael
  17. The Brunettes - Paper Dolls
  18. Eminem - Recovery
  19. Spoon - Transference
  20. New Young Pony Club - The Optimist
Genre break-down is as follows:
And, because I find it to be an illuminating way of seeing 'range' in a person's music taste, here's the dominant gender breakdown of vocalists:
And here's a few miscellaneous statistics, which could act as a guide for 'the perfect album' if you're an aspiring artist out there making your debut:
  • Average length of track on the albums: 4:09
  • Average length of the albums themselves: 46 minutes
  • Shortest album: 34 minutes
  • Longest album: 75+ minutes
  • Fewest number of tracks: 9
  • Most number of tracks: 18

    May 11, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #1 MGMT: Congratulations

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #1 MGMT: Congratulations
    Words by Dirk Calloway

    Preface: you're reading the final post in a daily series I've been writing on the best albums of 2010. It took me until April 2011 to start writing them, because I needed a bit of time for my opinions to percolate. I've actively listened to around 81 records from last year, and these 20 have been the cream of the crop. Today's a special post, because it's about the Album of the Year, but if it's not your cup of tea, perhaps you'd enjoy reading about the others here.

    Do me a favour? Kindly look at the album cover above? Ordinary geometric shapes are skewed; the ocean's waves look like a giant Firefox; a creature with eight eyes is surfing over foam seemingly created in MS Paint using its spray-paint tool; and there's no artist name or album title. Now, if you were a record company executive, would you "ok" that album cover? Or would gently propose the band should release it with this on the front instead:
    See what I did there? I retained the 'surf' element, put the band in there, added a guitar to appeal to the rock market, but got the lead singer to act kooky so they don't alienate their fans, while - most importantly - we put the names of both the artist and the album front-and-centre. I know you're not reading this blog for a lesson in design, I realise you're here for some analysis about the music, but a picture tells 1000 words. The picture that was eventually released to promote Congratulations is of an 8-eyed mutant riding a lo-fi wave made out of a fox. To me, that decision meant one thing, and one thing only: MGMT have decided to release their "shut the fuck up, we know what we're doing thanks" record. 

    And that, dear friends, is exactly what they have done. This is no ordinary pop album. It's 43 minutes of genius that encompasses several genres, without compromising on a chosen 'sound.' That sonic aesthetic makes sense in the world of the record itself, but is largely unclassifiable when viewed from the outside world you and I live in. If I had to summarise it in an old expression, I'd use the one about wedding preparations, where, for it to be perfect, you need "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." MGMT have made something fantastic by cobbling together Mamas & The Papas-styled harmonies, post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys hooks, Blur's drawled and ironic vocals, guitar noises seemingly lifted straight out of soul groups like The Delfonics, and bass riffs that sound like The Strokes made a baby with U2's Adam Clayton. To put it bluntly: they've distilled 40 years of pop music, cellared it in a recycled plastic barrel and served it to you in a chilled mug to drink. This is seriously messed up mainstream music.

    More importantly though, in the context of it being "album of the year" and all, Congratulations combines everything I found great in all of the Top 20's records. A fan of 9-minute epics like Kanye's Runaway? Try MGMT's 12-minute song Siberian Breaks. Do you like the way Arcade Fire and The Brunettes created dreamy soundscapes without losing their way in their song's melodies? Try MGMT's I Found A Whistle. Did you love dancing to Sia, Goldfrapp, and New Young Pony Club? Try MGMT's Song For Dan Treacy. How about the messed up synths in tracks by So So Modern and Crystal Castles? Perhaps you'd like MGMT's Brian Eno. Or were you more of a fan of Nas and Plan B's arena-sized arrangements? Well, clearly you didn't watch the music video above! Anyway... this album has everything I've loved about 2010, compressed into 9 beautiful tracks.

    The above music video is the album's closing song. On the first few listens I thought it was the most dull cut of the lot, but upon closer inspection I began to understand the lyrics. Told from the band's perspective, the verses could be read in a way that shows a band struggling to take in their mega-fame. One line in particular, shows how depressing it must be to have your finances dependent on your cookie-cutter pop machine blasting out mega-hits like the previous record's Kids. That line? "It's hardly sink or swim when all is well if the tickets sell." The song appears to be the reverse of a mission-statement. It's a footnote, explaining and referencing the rest of the album. This is an album that forces the band into a "sink or swim" situation. Just like Simon Peter in The Bible (well, not just like it, but humour me as I indulge their metaphor), we as fans need to step out of the boat as well, to test these new waters. MGMT's new direction has probably shaved a few hundred thousand record sales of their next few records, but their remaining fans are much stronger devotees now. MGMT could have been the biggest band in the world by emulating their past successes, but instead they chose to be one of the pop world's boldest acts. Check out their album's opening track:

    That was called Is It Working, and it's the band's version of a mission-statement. One witty Youtube commenter said that "[the] moral of this story [is]...don't go to Ikea stoned." Indeed. I'm pretty sure that is the gist of what the band were going for. They needed clarity in their work, couldn't get it anywhere, so studied other patterns and got so obsessed by this task that they re-invented themselves. Is It Working is the blueprint to the rest of the album. It lays down a set of rules:
    • Each song must 'turn' midway through.
    • The lines between 'synthesised sound' and 'real instruments' need to be blurred
    • There is no such thing as "too much echo"
    • If you've found a good riff, mine it once or twice, but then move on to something else before you kill it
    These rules bring a method to MGMT's madness. They make sure that, during your second and third listen, you feel a sense of anticipation for the next moment a rule will be enforced. The MGMT manifesto artifically propels the songs forward, even when if the tune would otherwise have naturally relaxed into its groove and been perfectly fine otherwise. It is this perpetual movement that makes this album a great one. Just like the mutant surfer on its cover, and the skewed chessboard background, this is a record that abhors stillness. 
    I love it.

    May 10, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #2 Sia: We Are Born

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #2 Sia: We Are Born
    Words by Dirk Calloway

    Preface: You're reading the penultimate post of a daily series, which has reviewed the best albums of 2010, as decided by me. You can catch up on missed entries by clicking this link here.

    Sia just keeps getting better. She's producing music more vibrant and alive than anyone in pop right now. Think about her nearest rivals: Lady Gaga is revealing herself to either be a one-trick pony or a wannabe-Madonna; Britney Spears is dependent on A-class producers to continue churning out hits; Christina Aguilera's most recent album didn't connect with me, but her back-catalogue is strong enough for her to remain a serious contender in the pop world; Pink seems to be chasing the power-ballad crowd; Janelle Monae needs another album or two under her belt to produce something focused enough for her abundance of talent; Rihanna looked like she was going places, but then released the sloppy Loud in 2010; Beyonce can still crank out an awesome single, but needs to drop the wannabe-Whitney Houston schtick stat; and, finally, where the hell is Gwen Stefani? Wait, final finally, I totally forgot about Katy Perry already. That happened quicker than usual.

    Rant over! Do you see my frustration though? Gorramit, is it too much to ask for slickly produced pop stars singing good music? Sia, bless her, doesn't seem to think that's a big challenge at all. Holy hell We Are Born has some rocking things going for it. Let's start with the guitar.
    Heard of The Strokes? The dude above, with his beloved Epiphone Riviera, is Nick Valensi and he's one of the key ingredients to The Strokes' success. He's collaborated with Sia on this record - or, rather, she's collaborated with him! - to infuse a rock-based groove in each of the pop tracks. I want to be careful how I phrase this paragraph, because I don't want to make it sound like Valensi's skills (and other guitarists Gus Seyffert and Greg Kurstin) caused magic in the creation of We Are Born. Quite the opposite, I wish to praise Sia for her collaboration-based style. Many of the best pop albums were done where strong personalities and styles collided head-on into each other. As an example, think of Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones' three-album long partnership, which yielded a consistent growth from both artist and producer. In the case of Sia, without knowing much about her at all really, it looks to me like she's eager to work with many of the best people around, and her music is all the better for it. Last album featured Beck on a couple of tracks, and to feature Valensi so prominently on this one was a really cool decision. Check out the guitar riff on first song The Fight

    Wow, that's a fun riff. Producer Greg Kurstin has done some nice magic here. Little bursts of piano punctuate the right ear whenever there's a silent moment. The backup vocals surround the listener's head in a swirl of chants. A cool bass line keeps things simmering throughout, complimenting a treble-heavy Hight Hat from the drummer. And then there's that guitar... perfect tone and just relentlessly riffing from start to finish. Gorgeous production, elevating the song from being a fairly simple ditty into a world-class track. Whenever it comes on, my head starts bopping. But that's not the only such cut on the album... I'm a big fan of everything else too, and nothing is outright bad. Here's a pictorial blow-by-blow, using the ratings I assigned in iTunes:
    Get the idea? Sia is swinging on vines through a forest of quality on We Are Born. There are peaks throughout the record. The best bit is that most of their introductions are quite distinct from the main content of the track itself, which means I'm always caught off-guard by the songs' hooks. If you're such a hard-ass that you're not surprised by them, then the marketing and music videos might do the trick... check out this bug-nuts insane video:

    Love it. The nice news is that Sia can bring it when she's performing live too. Unlike her contemporaries, she actually sings in her performances. The trade-off is that you won't catch her cavorting around the stage too much, but being stationary allows her to lean back and perfectly belt out the vocal lines. It's a wise decision her half, because this is a rock-pop record, and it just wouldn't be right if she were to start lip-synching to the punters.

    Little girl, big voice huh? Great band too. I think I'm going to let the music above speak for itself here in my final paragraph:
    • You won't find slutty lyrics anywhere in these tracks (Katy Perry's "I want to see your peacock" anyone? Sigh)
    • There's either none or very little pitch-correction in Sia's vocals
    • The music itself sounds like it's by a real band in a real studio, playing real instruments (unlike Britney's latest, which sounds like it was entirely composed in Fruity Loops)
    • All of the songs, bar an unnecessary Madonna cover, sound completely original. This isn't a 'genre' exercise trying to emulate some icon from the 80s, nor is it a cookie-cutter release that sounds like you could cut and paste other R&B vocalists into the mix
    • Sia's vocal range is refreshingly "alto" - never over-extending, but also refusing to rest on low-pitched laurels. There's a breathiness to the delivery (especially on the haunting last track) that, again, seems "real" in a way that is stupidly rare for pop music in the 2000s.
    Have I sold you on it yet? Maybe you're never going to be keen on pop, I understand. Tomorrow's Album of the Year prize might be more up your alley then. In the meantime, thanks for reading, I'll see you very soon for the final post in this series.

    May 8, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #3 Girl Talk: All Day

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #3 Girl Talk: All Day
    Words by Dirk Calloway

    Preface: Welcome! You've joined us just two places away from the Album of the Year. Each day I'm reviewing my favourite records out of the 81+ or so I listened to from 2010. You can read the other analyses here.

    All Day is freely downloadable here, from the artists' own record label. Do me a favour and check it out? It'll help you understand the next paragraph! Seriously, please, go to the Illegal Art (in name only, don't worry) website and check it out for yourself: http://illegal-art.net/allday/

    Right, now we're all set for some discussion on my third favourite album of 2010. Let's begin - just like the record itself - with the opening roar of Black Sabbath's War Pigs. Within a few beats, Jay-Z announces, "Hit Me." Ozzy Osbourne starts singing, then Ludacris' Move Bitch takes over. A minute or so later The Ramones' Blitzkrieg Pop is competing for your attention with Missy Elliot's Get Your Freak On. By the end of the track we're suitably prepared to get Jay-Z asking for a "fuck you" over the top of, all things, General Public's Tenderness. These are just a few of the hundreds of samples were used in the making of this album. Fast Company made an infographic to help explain it all, and I've got a screenshot of their work below. Click it to see a bigger version, and you'll get a feel for how densely mixed together this record is:
    That's right, Girl Talk (AKA Gregg Gillis) is back, and he's on fine form as ever. In fact, I'd argue, he's on the best form he's ever been. Of all the records in my 'Top 20' for 2010, his is the album that has grown me on the most significantly. Don't get me wrong, I knew it was genius from the moment I pressed play, but it was a bit of a shock to me that he'd changed his 'format' this significantly. If this is the first time you've ever heard of Girl Talk though, I might have to restrain myself from getting a bit cerebral too quickly though. Humour me by watching this video below, so we can debate the intricacies of his approach to music? I dare you to be unimpressed by what he can achieve in 5 minutes, while his girlfriend's asleep...

    ...dunno if you watched that at all, but this guy is a seriously smart cookie. It's been a few years since I started listening to his stuff, but our 'creator-listener' relationship got serious when I saw the documentary RiP : A Remix Manifesto. That film debated the wrongs of copyright law and made a compelling case for fair-use of samples. It also showed to me that it's still possible to 'make it' big in the music business whilst holding down a day-job in the tech industry. One can dream, right? The most important thing it taught me was that Girl Talk knew what he was doing, and that none of this is accidental for him.
    So, approaching my first listen of All Day, it's fair to say I had some baggage. I was convinced this would be a masterpiece so heavily laden with samples from obscure pop songs that my mind would implode in on itself trying to make sense of it. It would be a hipster-masterpiece that made my geeky friends high-five each other because they could pick out each and every track he referenced.

    But that did not happen, and I'm glad that's the case. Instead, I found myself marvelling at its freshness, wondering how such a finicikity genius could come up with something that sounded so off-the-cuff. This was music for the people, by the people. Anorak-wearers need not apply, because the hoody and Converse-wearing geneartion have this album well covered. This felt like one of his near-mythical shows, where everyone in the audience is left drenched with sweat and good vibes thanks to one seamless mashup after another. This felt like something fun, able to be put on at any party and rock the roof off.

    Once I'd got over my own preconceptions, I learned that this relationship was not one of 'creator-listener' at all. In fact, this was far more symbiotic (appropriate enough, given Gillis' previous line of work as a bio-engineer) than I realised. Girl Talk, first and foremost, is an Entertainer. We, his audience, are the Gloriously Entertained. This realisation was the gift that kept on giving for me while listening to All Day. I can play it at work and have the day's mood lifted in an instant. I can put it on in the car and find my pedal goes straight to the metal. When it's played while cooking, I'm a whirling devil of a chef, including my own dance moves like The Onion Slice And Dice (which looks significantly sillier when one is not actually chopping an onion...) in the preparation of the evening's dish.
    This is my musical caffeine for 2010. Go get it now, while you can from here: http://illegal-art.net/allday/

    Tune in tomorrow for the second-to-last review of 2010's top albums. It's a pop record by a woman who comes from Australia!

    May 7, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #4 Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #4 Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
    Words by Dirk Calloway

    Preface: This is a daily series celebrating the best records released in 2010. I listened to 81+ albums a few times over each, so I think I'm in an ok position to judge them against one another. We're now at the fourth best, and there's only three more days until we reach the series' end. You can read the others here.

    Trying to buy My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on Compact Disc was such a pain in the ass that I was seriously tempted to buy the whole thing on iTunes instead. By the time it was finally available in New Zealand's stores - about a week late - I'd read dozens of reviews that declared it "Hip Hop's Sgt Pepper." A 35-minute long movie was directed and released by West, containing most of the record's songs in some form or another. Kanye had also released remixed versions of the songs every Friday for months, either as a bizarre marketing stunt or because he wanted to make sure we were ready for the craziness he was about to unleash.

    My point? I have never been so well prepared for an album, but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy still left me shocked and awed. An appropriate collision of expectations then, considering the hypocrisies it delivered. This is an album brimming with excess, despite its producer feeling at his loneliest. It's a bold and coherent Long Player released as if to defy an era that's obsessed with 3 minute downloads. Its lead-single became a trend-setting anthem despite it proclaiming that "[though] every superhero needs his theme music, no one man should have all that power." The next single hated on "the jerk-offs who never take work off," but a journalist who covered the creation of the record found that engineers were in the studio 24 hours a day and, for weeks on end, West rarely slept.

    All that hard work paid off. 5 albums in, it's about time West made good on the promise of his debut album. I'm not sure if you remember Jesus Walks, his massive hit from 2004, but it energised hip hop fans worldwide: here was a song that sounded like the future of rap, transcending generational boundaries from a lyrical, musical and spiritual perspective. I was sure Kanye would quickly churn out better and better songs, but instead they stayed at the same level of quality for many years. Consistently good, always dependable, but rarely breaking through the stratosphere that I desperately wanted him to. Finally though, with songs like Lost In The World, Power, Monster, the 9-minute long (!) Runaway and All Of The Lights, West has created epic pieces of music unlike anything the world has ever heard. I mean, hell, would you catch 50 Cent, Eminem, Lil' Wayne or T.I. making a music video that featured a ballet dancing troupe?

    This isn't all on Kanye's shoulders though. The list of collaborators is stunning in itself: Jay-Z, Rick Ross, The RZA, La Roux, Elton John, Fergie, Drake, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Chris Rock, Bon Iver, Fergie, Drake, The-Dream, Dwele, et. al. There's a lot more than that buried in there! Few of them attempt to be show-stoppers, because they're all there to help him, to assist with the heavy-lifting Kanye's tried to achieve. It's commendable that he asked for assistance, and I think it went some way to disproving the idea he's egotistic. He just can't be, given he used the help of that many fantastic people.

    The only thing stopping this from being 'album of the year' is a 2-minute interlude at the end of a song called Blame Game that sounds like Chris Rock and some trashy woman talking about how "Yeezy taught" her how to have better sex. Without it, this record would've been absolutely perfect. 2 bad minutes in 80 otherwise excellent ones is pretty good though. Most artists would be glad to have just one of his singles on their records. He had four, with the potential for many more. I eagerly await Kanye's next album, because it could be Hip Hop's Abbey Road for all we know. Check out My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ASAP if you haven't already.

    Tune in tomorrow for an album by a biomedical engineer that also happens to be the third best record of 2010.

    May 6, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #5 Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #5 Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
    Words by Dirk Calloway 

    Preface: This is a series that has been written daily (well, pretty much) since mid-April. The collection's pages have been viewed 1000 times now. It's been a wild ride and I've really enjoyed getting to know some new readers as a result of its publication. Check out the other 15 reviews here.

    Well this is fairly predictable, isn't it? The Suburbs won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It reached #1 on the Billboard 200. Hell, it was so big, it even had 8 album covers. I'm still not sure which one's the real one! The record featured on dozens of other "top albums of 2010" lists. Everyone loved The Suburbs and I'm very late to the party to be singing its praises. Rather than try to compete with the likes of NME and Pitchfork, I'll instead try to explain what it is that makes it special to me.

    For me, the selling point is this album's sonic consistency. It's an album shrouded in fog and smog. There's a hazy quality to it that means I can never just "play" one of its songs, by itself. The world of The Suburbs is - appropriately enough, given its title - completely enveloping. There are three reasons for this. Indulge me while I list them numerically...
    1. The band took the finished version and pressed it to vinyl. They then took that 'master' and recorded the digital and CD versions from it. Essentially, this means they've compromised the sound quality to deliberately add another layer of shadow. 
    2. The lyrics are thematically similar, from one song to another. There are even a couple of 'suites' where the tracks are immediately followed by their own second act. It's not what I'd call a concept album, but it's sure as hell consistent.
    3. This is Arcade Fire, and they've got as many band members as there were people in Snow White's posse. With 8 folk hammering away at their instruments, often duplicating parts note-for-note as another musician, there's an echo in your ears that few other bands can replicate. This means they can give off this shrouded vibe live too. Check out the below video for an acoustic performance in a tiny room as an example:

    Hot damn. If I could single out a lone example of the album's brilliance, I'd choose the song Suburban War. It's a beautiful piece, built around a guitar riff that descended from Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence. It soon becomes much more than that though. We march away from the initially intimate ambience of that riff to a full-blown battle. There are thunderous war drums and a tangible dread in the air. It turns out the fight is not literal though: we're witnessing an internal skirmish between the singer's memories and the harsh reality of his present. His emotions run true with me. They are 'of the moment' in a way that defines this as an unshakably modern record.
    Last year was an uneasy one. The recession was over, but it didn't feel like it. Petrol prices weren't as high as 2008, but damned if I could afford a full tank of gas. Presidents who once had soaring poll results were at their lowest after attack upon attack from a reeling populace who lacked certainty in their jobs, mortgages or schools. In 2010, being in the suburbs was as comforting as a cold bath. I don't have enough fingers to count the redundancies I know about, and that's in New Zealand - a place with relative prosperity. Suburban War was the track that came to mind for me when I read a gloomy article in The Economist or saw John Stewart shrug a defeated sigh in 2010. When comics look glum mocking the news, you know the world's in a bit of a pickle. This song sums that up for me. "All my old friends, they don't know me now" indeed.

    There's many more words I could type about this album, but that one song condenses its brilliance enough that I don't need to. This is an epic beast of a record, massive in scope but personal in nature. You'd be silly to miss out on it, so do me a favour and check it out already. Just promise me you'll listen to it from end-to-end on a good pair of speakers or headphones. You need to feel the haze of The Suburbs in your pores to truly understand it.

    Tune in tomorrow folks, 'cause we've cracked The Top 5 Albums of 2010 now. May 7th will see me review an album that is dark, twisted and fantastic.

    May 5, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #6 The Black Keys: Brothers

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #6 The Black Keys: Brothers
    Words by Dirk Calloway 

    Preface: This is a series that has been written, by and large, daily since mid-April. So far we've served up around 900 page views of it to a willing audience who's been giving me great feedback. If you're keen to catch up on some reading and Youtube vids, check this handy-dandy link out.
     
    Owning this record was not a New Year's Resolution, but when 2010 began, this was on the top of my "Must Own" list. When it finally arrived I was like a kid in a candy store. Not only did I buy the thing on its release date, but I bought a new pair of headphones to go with it. Listening to it with earbuds was not going to cut it! This album changed how I listen to music. I rock out Sennheiser's at work and at home now, with the purest bass I can afford pumping out at all hours of the day. The sound is crazy precise, which is exactly what you need to appreciate a new Black Keys album.

    For those that missed it, their previous record Attack and Release was a ready-made classic. That was in no small part thanks to their collaboration with super-producer Danger Mouse who pumped up the sound of a duo into a full-fledged world-class rock outfit. It was their White Blood Cells, their Revolver, their The Bends. Hyphenated-hyperbole abounded!
    This set the stage for a powerful victory lap. But could they deliver their equivalent of an Elephant, or a Sgt Pepper or an Ok Computer? 3 Grammy Awards (+ 2 extra nominations) and around 500,000 sales in the USA alone... I would say that they've finally hit The Big Time. Hell, check out their music video for Next Girl below, the scrolling text sums it up: "this is not the official video for The Black Keys' Next Girl, this is an attempt by their record label to attract attention to the band using a ridiculous dinosaur puppet." To have that damn puppet lip synching whilst a bikini-clad woman writhes orgasmically in the background... instant classic.

    A nice send-up of 'alternative culture' whilst taking the piss out of mainstream music videos, no? I love it. The song's not half bad either. Just as you're tiring of the riffs and hooks, they switch it up midway through to launch into some half-time swing, then when they bring back the things you were bored of a few seconds earlier you're desperate to hear some more. It's a neat way of keeping your ears interested, clinging on, and they repeat the technique often. No song here is "static." If it appears at first like the song is simmering, you're wrong, it's moments away from reaching boiling point. The aforementioned record label has apparently taken notice of this and have really gone to town with the marketing of Brothers. The next music video up today is for a song called Tighten Up. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was also nominated for Best Rock Song. In the video, you think the duo will burst into song, but instead it's their kids who take over. Suddenly we're in a playground romance, complete with a desperate love triangle and a decent fight scene. Clearly The Black Keys are determined to mess with your expectations:

    But let's get to the reason this album is so high up the list. Everlasting Light, which opens the proceedings with a rock-solid keyboard part, is probably my favourite song of the year. Its lyrics are heartfelt, gentle and - more importantly - sincere. I won't paste them here, because in the cold light of day they seem too innocent to be genuine.  The overdrive-laden delivery by vocalist Dan Auerbach brings an adult touch to them that sounds like he's making a vow to his family. Patrick Carney lays down such an unshakable groove that it lends me to think about words like 'stoic' and 'strong.' Hotdamn these two are great musicians. I personally listen to this song whenever I wish to behave like a more grown-up man, the quiet and reserved type who stands tall when tough times approach. It's a beautiful track and I have played it more often than any song from 2010. I've probably heard it about 200+ times now. I can sometimes listen to it several times in one hour without causing any irritation. Gorgeous track.

    So, why is Brothers not higher up in the list then? For one thing, they cancelled their gig in Wellington because they felt tired. I understand they'd been touring for most of the year, but that decision caused a loss of good-will for me. In addition to that blow, I have found that - with some months since its release - Brothers has one too many forgettable tracks for my liking. That's not to say those tunes are bad, mind. They just don't hit me like a sledgehammer in the way the next five albums' songs do. Everlasting Light though, boy, that one hit me like a freight train. I just wish more of the album had connected with me on the same visceral level. Make no mistake though, this is a measured and assured piece of work by a great group who deserve their moment in the sun, even if it causes them to squint and itch because they're outside of their natural habitat.

    Tune in tomorrow for a review of Canada's greatest export since Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and Alanis.

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #7 Nas and Damian Marley: Distant Relatives

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #7 Nas and Damian Marley: Distant Relatives
    Words by Dirk Calloway
    Preface: you're reading a - mostly - daily series on the best albums of 2010. Check out the archives for April and May (you'll see them up the top-right of this here page) for more!

    You're looking at royalty here. One of the princes of Hip Hop and the King of Reggae's heir. To fuse them together in the same record though... would fireworks result? Or just a soft fizzle followed by the smell of stale gunpowder? Turns out... neither! If we're sticking with explosion metaphors, and why shouldn't we, let's just say this is a self-contained slow-burn that sustains itself over many months. But it starts with a BANG:

    As We Enter is the name of that first shot across the bow (ok really need to ditch this "explosion" thing). Its music video is, um, not my favourite, but at least it gives you a legal way to listen to the song. A few of the lyrics are censored, including "guns" and "ganga" of all things. Ironic that a country that fiercely defends its right to bear arms would also demand that we protect youngsters ears from a word like "guns." Sigh. Anyway, the song itself is carried by a groovy keyboard riff and feels like the two guys are letting loose and passing lyrics to each other with excitement. By no means does it sound like a track from two massive stoners! It's energised, alive and also serves as a fantastic way for them to open their live act. Here's a shot taken at the gig in Wellington I went to where I saw them perform live, including Nas in an All-Blacks shirt:
    The look on Damian Marley's face above says it all. This is not an album by 'composers,' nope, it's an album by performers. Each line is part of the act. It's not a conceptual act though, it's just a conciousness that they have the limelight and will make the most of it while they're in it. Whether they're on a soap-box demanding "every child deserves to learn" or the quietly pleading album closure Africa Must Wake Up, these two are determined to grab your ears for as long as you'll listen. I'll take lyrics like this over most other hip hop any day: 
    The black oasis, ancient Africa, the sacred
    Awaken the sleeping giant, science, art is your creation
    I dreamed that we could visit old Kemet
    your history is too complex and rigid for some Western critics
    They want the whole subject diminished
    Rest assured, if any of the lyrics sound trite, they're done with the best of intentions. Indeed, a workmate of mine took umbrage at a rhyme with "ganga" and "Willy Wonka" and his reaction is justified. I guess my feeling about most rap albums (if you could call Distant Relatives rap) is that they generally have about 20% of lyrics that I either feel make no sense, or are downright offensive, or are voiced by thoughtless individuals. If I can defend this record against his thoughts, I'd propose that Distant Relatives' strike-out rate is much better than 80-20, and when they do fail to deliver the goods they do so while trying hard. I appreciate hip hop that goes to some effort. 

    Distant Relatives goes beyond 'effort' though - it's rap's version of The Lion King or Paul Simon's Graceland. Choirs sing over tribal rhythms, tuned percussion clunk where you'd normally hear a synthesiser, all while violins play over the top. And that's just the second song. Many of the tracks on this record take you to places you never thought you'd hear from Nas. He's always had savvy arrangements, but this is a massive step up for him from his more recent releases. The great thing about it all though, is they're able to improve upon the sound when they play live! They've toured this year with a top-knotch band who can seriously rock out, adding flourishes on top of existing beauty, as if to prove that the song's foundations are sound and able to withstand any amount of renovation professional musos can throw at them. These aren't "samples," instead they are legitimate music that has been thoughtfully arranged.

    I'm gonna wrap this thing up here, because either you're keen to give the record a go, or you're really not. You can let your prejudice against genre influence that decision if you like. Or... you could check out a genuinely original piece of music from two artists that work within played-out and usually trite "brands" of music and are innovating in a way that is truly exciting. Your call!

    Tomorrow, we will review another album. It is by another duo. They would appreciate my phrasing here, as they replicated it in their publicity and cover art.

    May 3, 2011

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #8 Weezer: Pinkerton - Deluxe Edition

    The Top 20 Albums of 2010
    #8 Weezer: Pinkerton - Deluxe Edition
    Words by Dirk Calloway
     
    Preface: this was meant to be a daily series. I failed in that around Easter and then got writer's block for this review. Hopefully I can get back on the horse again! Sorry y'all.

    So, I was going to write a review about The Kings of Leon's album Come Around Sundown, but I realised that, at best, it's a nice album to listen to late at night. At worst, it's cringe-worthy and reminds me of U2. This is not a good thing. Enter Weezer, with a re-release of an album from 1996...

    Today's review will focus on a record that's part of the 'Deluxe Edition series' of Universal's. It's a collection that's been growing for some time now. Usually, the label re-releases an album in its entirety, accompanied by B-sides and rarities on a second disc that's packaged along with it. Sometimes, if you're lucky, the album is remastered so it blasts out of your stereo like never before. Pinkerton's Deluxe Edition has had its volume juiced up to 11, and is stuffed to the gills with extras. Its packaging is something to hold and treasure; crisp, thick card encases a wonderful book and the two discs, with the cover art seemingly also benefiting from a 'remaster' too. Perhaps it's just a case of printing techniques improving, and the shock of seeing the cover without 14 years of fading. 

    I've owned a copy of Pinkerton for a long time now. I remember being told about its underground resurgence while I was at school. A guy from my class said that his favourite band was Weezer, and I was greatly intrigued. At this point, they'd not released anything for 3 years. Rumour had it they'd split up but not bothered to announce it. My memory of the band included the riff of El Scorcho and the fantastic video for Buddy Holly I remember watching over and over when it got bundled in with Windows 95. But now it was 1999 and this cool dude in my class was adamant they were the best band in the world. He was first-hand proof of the Pinkerton phenomenon that resurrected Weezer. At some inexact point, it had begun selling thousands of units per week, all over the globe. Met with apathy on its first release, the tide had turned and kids everywhere were paying $30 for an album that was four years old. Record stores were perpetually ordering it in, because stock was flying off the shelves whenever it arrived again. A massive groundswell of belief in this album surged the band onwards to their 'Green' album a wee while later, and the rest is history. Pinkerton destroyed the band, but resurrected it too. It's as stranger rock 'n roll tale as anything I've ever heard.
    So, 14 years on, the record is now widely regarded as a classic. Rolling Stone retrospectively changed its original review from a '3 star' rating to a '5 star' one. Emo culture was born, proclaiming Pinkerton as the inspiration for tortured and sexually repressed white rock music over the course of an entire generation. Nearly a million copies later, it's therefore fitting that it's finally got the release it deserves. And it sounds great now. 

    As mentioned earlier, Pinkerton's been remastered. These days a 'remaster' can either be a godsend or a dirty word. Many remastered albums have been so thoroughly compressed that though they sound 'louder' they also blow out the dynamic range available between 'quiet' and 'loud.' We need that range to hear nuance in music, so many afficiandos will complain that a 'digital remaster' ruins the soul of an album. Thankfully though, this is not the case for Pinkerton!
    The above image shows you a sound-wave comparison between a few split seconds of music: the remastered version is on top and the original version is beneath. To explain what you're looking at, the yellow bumps represent the sound of the record in visual form. The higher the bump, the more noise you hear. The red box indicates the gap between 'maximum volume' and 'actual volume.' This is all just a long way of saying "the remastered version is louder, but not in an aggressive way." There's still plenty of room for this record to breathe. It often sounds like they've just cranked the low-end up a bit, so the bass growls and the vocals have a bit of extra punch. None of this has changed the way the album has crunchy guitars aplenty and heavy-hitting drums from Patrick Wilson. It's the most sensitive remaster I've heard since The Beatles' 2009 releases, so you'll find your old copy will go unplayed from this point forwards.

    The extra tracks included are quite varied. There's the sublime You Gave Your Love To Me Softly, and the even better I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams. The latter is a castaway from the abandoned concept album the band had been planning, called Songs From The Blackhole. If its quality is anything to go by, that record would have been a sure-fire classic. In my opinion, its inclusion on this release justified the entire purchase. The female vocalist adds a sincerity to Rivers' lyrics that is almost childlike, and it's a nice fit for the sing-songy melody he's concocted. To be sure, it sounds like something from later in the band's career than the Pinkerton-era it was recorded in, but it's a breath of fresh air into their back catalogue and I'm glad it has an official home now. I'd had a fairly dodgy copy of it for many years, and it's relieving to have it in perfect condition now. Check it out:

    Nice huh? The rest of the collection is of similar levels of quality. Whether they realised it or not, this was a band who was at the peak of their powers, and Pinkerton Deluxe Edition makes sure their live concerts, demos, B-sides and others document this legendary act forever more.

    So why is this not higher up in the list? Hell, it was the highest ranked album of 2010 according to Metacritic. Simply put, I'm gonna give newer releases a fair chance by stashing this album lower down. If I didn't, Pinkerton would have taken top-slot. It's a corker. Get it by any means necessary!

    Tomorrow we're reviewing a weird clash between a ruler of the rap world and Rastafari royalty.