Yeah Yeah Yeahs is back! It's Blitz! review.

Note: No drama this time...

One of the most exciting bands of this decade is back, and obviously is such a big time. But is their third effort worth the wait? Does it live up to their very high standards? If you're reading this, you've likely heard the album that leaked almost two months before its release. Now, if you ask me, I think that's kind of unfair with the band and I feel bad for hearing it, but I just couldn't hold my curiosity. Specially after hearing the first single... Anyway, let's get down to business.

Opener (and lead single) "Zero" sets the bar ridiculously high for the rest of the album. A dance track with the so called "Euro pop" feel. It kind of reminds me of The Killers's "Human" in the sense that it starts slow and becomes faster over the time. Here you see clearly how much better YYY is than The killers. unlike "Human", you don't get tired of the tune after 30 seconds. In fact, the opposite happens. As the song progresses, it gets better and better, and in the end you're wishing for more.

And you get more. Next song, "Heads Will roll" is possibly the best song that these guys ever wrote. Here you don't see a post punk band anymore. You see a serious flirt with dance music. People have been comparing this with New Order's "Blue Monday", but I think it's much better than that and YYY will certainly take over the indie dance floors this year. "Dance, dance, dance till you're dead!", these are probably the coolest lyrics that I heard since MGMT's "Time To Pretend".

In the next song, "Soft Shock", things slow down. Now I confess that i'm a big fan of fast tracks, but this one is pretty sweet and enjoyable. Just when I was starting to wonder if the guitarist was still alive, comes "Dull Life". with its more traditional YYY's sound, with heavy guitars, this is going to please "old school" fans. it's not as good as the first two songs, but it's still pretty good.

In their constant search to change their sound, sometimes they seem to push too hard. Ballad "Runaway" starts with just piano! This really was weird in the first listen, but after some time I started to like it. Songs like 'Little Shadow" and Hysteric" seem a bit difficult to me, but I just can't hate them. There is a sense in which this album seem complex and very well done. If Coldplay makes an album and I don't like, it's their fault, of course. But with YYY it sounds like I'm just not smart enough to enjoy the songs, and they will grow over time.

Or maybe they won't. The fact is; "Zero" and 'Heads Will Roll" are so awesome that I highly doubt that I will ever care about that.

I can't wait to see them live!! Hope they announce dates in New York soon.

Grade: 8.5 (out of 10)

Random Stuff

NYU girls are absolutely gorgeous and elegant. Almost two years of school here, and I'm still impressed. Too bad I don't have many opportunities to explore the huge potential of my school...

I still suck with girls and I wonder if someday I'll get better. Why is it so hard to just make a move? Fear to be turned down? This time there are other things involved.

My classes are not really as good as they should be. Today Monetary Economics was pretty boring. And it seems that time just doesn't pass when I'm not paying attention. Hope it gets better next week.

If 2008 was the year of new bands (MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Crystal Castles...), 2009 might well be the year of "old" bands. I'm not just talking about Franz Ferdinand, but also Lily Allen, Superbus, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (single Zero is my new favorite track), Green Day, and maybe The Strokes and The White Stripes. Oh yeah, and Arctic Monkeys, of course. I have a very good feeling about all these albums.

In the past weeks, I was able to go out a lot and went, as usual, to a lot of concerts (even some that I wasn't that excited about), but the best part was to find new clubs and indie parties. It turns out that New York has a lot to offer in that matter. And that's really good news for me. To be able to go to a place where I can listen to good music, dance, get drunk and meet girls. That's all I ask for.

After another (!) cold, I think I'm in good shape now. Plus, school has been not extremely demanding in the past weeks. Then why the hell I'm not happier? I think I'm doing fine but that I could have it so much better...

I'm not a good writer. This post is pretty lame. Maybe I should delete it. Whatever, I'll post it.   

"You're zero. What's you name? No one is gonna ask you about it..." This is stuck in my head. Watch out, Franz Ferdinand. The competition for album of the year will be hard.              

Album Review, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

"How did Scottish people ever have sex before the existence of Franz Ferdinand? " That's how Spin magazine opens its review of Franz's third album. Well, I'm not Scottish but right now it's hard to imagine how I was able to enjoy music before these guys... It's not necessary to talk here about how good their first two albums are and how anticipated 'Tonight' was, specially after all the buzz over their live concerts in the last year, where a lot of new songs were exaustively tested. I'll just say that my expectations were pretty high because Franz Ferdinand has been one of my favourite bands in the last months and I actually went to one of their concerts and saw how good the new stuff is live. Because of that, I was a little worried, worried to be disapointed, worried that they could have fucked up some of the songs that I already loved, etc... For that, my first sentiment over the new album was relief. This pretty much lives to all my expectations and may be even better than I was expecting, may be even their best album! 

'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is a fast album, an album to hear before going out, like Alex Kapranos described it months ago. But I'd say more than that. It's the kind of record that you can put in a danceclub without remixes and that's pretty fucking awesome! There are a lot of synthetizers and the eletronic feeling is much stronger now. Anyone with legs will dance hearing this record. It's not a lot different than their previous records, but there are new directions, like Lucid Dreams, now with almost 8 minutes! In some points, they seem inspired by acts like Justice and this may not please everyone, but for me it is more than enough. If there is anything to be criticized, it is that it feels too short. But so, are the best things in life... Below, I give a track by track review. 

Ulysses: The record opens with Ulysses, the lead single. The synths are strong here, a good indication of what awaits you. They also have a chorus with the already classic 'la la la' and I simply love it! Grade: 9.5

Turn It On: There were huge expectations about this one, labeled by many the new 'Take me out'. If that will be case, I don't know, but right now I can hardly think of a better way to spend 2:21 minutes... Grade: 10 

No, You Girls Never Know: This was previously called 'Katherine kiss me' and this was the first new song that I heard months ago. The studio version has more synths and it really feels better than the live version. Grade: 8.5 

Send Him Away: One of the best surprises, I didn't know this one. The pace slows down a little bit here, but just enough to get your breath back and the chorus is very nice. Grade: 8

Twilight Omens: This reminds me of The Beatles but without losing the Franz's appeal. It's one of my favourites. Grade: 9

Bite Hard: It starts slowly and suddenly gets really fast, more or less like 'Jacqueline'. Again, the synths and the dance feel are very strong. Grade: 9 

What She Came For: This was one of my favourite songs even before hearing the studio version. Now I can safely say that the album version rocks. For the first three minutes or so, we see Franz at their best: electric pace, killer chorus... In the end, a surprisingly good sequence, with heavier guitars. Fantastic!! Grade: 10

Live Alone: Another pretty good song. It will not be a single, just because this album is so damn good, but it will get a lot of airplay.. from me, at least. Grade: 8

Can't Stop Feeling: The beginning is a little bit weird and at first I thought the synths were too strong. Now I love them. It's better than the demo version. Grade: 8.5

Lucid Dreams: Probably the most controversial song of the album. Not only it lasts almost 8 minutes (!) but it is also very different than the demo version that everybody knows. A lot of fans seem to be pissed of by this, but I'm loving it. Specially the last three minutes, where it feels like Justice in their best moments. Amazing! Grade: 9.5

Dream Again: Ok, no record is perfect. This feels out of place. Too slow for me... Grade: 5

Katherine Kiss Me: This has the same lyrics as 'No, you girls never know', but with a slow pace. Nobody can say that they were not ambitious... Grade: 7

Most of the time it's hard to review an album track by track because rarely you find a record where more than, say, 3 or 4 songs are really good and this has 10 great songs (!). What a killer way to start 2009. 'Tonight' is Franz Ferdinand's statement that they are the best indie band of the planet. Very well done, guys! 

Grade: 9.5

The 10 best albums of 2008!

After a crazy end of year (details later...), I'm back with another 'best of' list. If 2008 was a bad year for me in general, musically the year was pretty positive. A lot of shows and a more mature taste made 2008 the best music year of my life.

The new metal and emo bands lost a lot of space, specially with blockbusters like Paramore and Linkin Park not releasing new material. Metal bands also lost ground. No Angra and almost no Nightwish this year. But Metallica really won me with Death Magnetic, possibly one of my 5 favourite metal albums of all time. But relax, I won't say here (again!) that they came back to the good, old times prior to 'The Black Album', because I'm not a big fan of their 80's stuff anyway. But it's a kick ass album, and it's good to see them answering critics in such a great way... 

Speaking of comebacks, how satisfying is it to see Britney Spears releasing such a great album? Circus almost made my top 10, I would consider it number 11. Other pop acts, such as Katy Perry, Pink and Rihanna also impressed me a lot and they could be in my list if the year wasn't so good for indie rock. Yeah, 'indie', whatever that means, is where my heart really is and this will be clear below. Finally, there are three Brooklyn bands in my list and that really makes me feel good about living in New York. That also makes me consider leaving Manhattan and moving to Williamsburg, but that's another story... Anyway, here comes my list.

10. Kaiser Chiefs, Off With Their Heads: At first I hated it because it is so similar to their other albums, but now I love it. Yes, the Chiefs are not going to change your life like TV On The Radio (I'm being sarcastic...) and they are not going to be U2-big like The Killers (I love irony...). Kaiser Chiefs is just a band to dance to and have fun with. That's more than enough for me.  Best song: Never Miss a Beat.

9. Black Kids, Partie Traumatic: The lead singer's voice is very similar to Steve Bay's (from Hot Hot Heat) and we all know that that band is basically nothing after Franz Ferdinand. Not only the voice, but the songs structure is also similar. How could they succeed with that? With female backing vocals that are cute and sexy at the same time, of course. After all, Franz doesn't have girls singing. Come to think of it, it's a very smart yet simple trick. Hot Hot Heat should consider that in the future...  Best song: Partie Traumatic.

8. Chairlift, Does You Inspire You?: Two Brooklyn bands seem to be everyone's favourites to be '2009's MGMT'. One of them is Amazing Baby, which still doesn't have an album out. The other one is Chairlift. Even thought they are in practice a 2009's band, they already have an ipod commercial's hit song-Bruises-and a surprisingly polite and clean album. Think about cute music a la Feist, but with tons of Bjork. Interesting? You bet your sweet ass it is! Best song: Garbage.

7. Metallica, Death Magnetic: No more wood drums, no more seemingly unfinished songs, no more flirts with new metal. Death Magnetic is Metallica's statement that St. Anger was an accident and that they totally deserve to be considered 'THE metal band'. Best song: The Unforgiven III.

6. The Kills, Midnight Boom: Most of the time It sounds  as a combination of The White Stripes with Garbage. I can hardly think of a more exciting mix. Can you?. Best song: Last Day Of Magic.

5. Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles: Probably the most original debut of the year. When you sample 8-bit videogame sounds and have a girl screaming, most of the time senseless words, and call that music, the bet is high. If something goes wrong, not only you will not sell, but also the critics will kill you. Fortunately for these guys, everything went right. Their album was well received by critics, they have a cult fan base (I'm including myself here...), Alice Glass is NME's coolest person of 2008 and 'Alice Practice' is a huge success in indie dance floors. Forget about Justice, Crystal Castles is the new supercool electronic band!  Best song: Alice Practice.

4. The Subways, All Or Nothing: This album is similar to their debut and there's nothing revolutionary about it. We are talking about straightforward pop rock here, executed almost with perfection, an improvement over their (very good!) debut. Songs like 'Turn around', 'Kalifornia' and 'Shake! Shake!' are instant pleasures, but it was only after I realized the power of songs like 'Obssession' and 'All Or Nothing' that I saw how amazing this album is. It is the number one album in my last.fm and that's really really something because I listened to a lot of music this year. Best song: Shake! Shake!

3. The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing: The perfect combination of pop a la Kylie Minogue, and indie rock, this caught my attention in the first listen. Like The Subways's All Or Nothing, it has some of the best singles of the year, but it's more homogeneous than that album. Basically, every song is good! Also, I went to their concert three times last year, and all of them were pretty decent: The live experience feels like a very good party, the kind that you never want to leave. Best songs: Great DJ, Keep your head. 

2. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend: At first, I didn't see what was special about them and the african beats seemed a little weird. I remember thinking: "Oh god, this sucks". Thank god I was patient and listened to them a few times before giving up. I really don't know which band I like better, this or The Ting Tings, so I flipped a coin (haha, more or less) and they are number two... Best songs: Walcott, The Kids Don't Stand a Chance.

1. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular: If you're into indie rock, you're probably tired of hearing about the career-making singles 'Kids', 'Time To Pretend' and 'Electric Feel'. But MGMT is much more than that. Take, 'The Handshake' for example. It starts slowly and becomes faster progressively in a nicer and nicer way. And the lyrics? Are they about fearing to sell out to a big label?  Or is the song about manipulating someone in a relationship? Every time I hear this song I think about it and I still  can't reach a definite conclusion. The fact that this happens with pretty much all the songs in this album already puts it above the rest. Also, 'Kids' is the best song that I heard in a long time, to say the least, and that puts MGMT's debut easily among the best albums of this decade. Regarding this band, the comparison should be with Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes. The standards are pretty fucking high...  Best songs: Kids, The Handshake.

Review, The Killers, Day & Age

First of all, The Killers was probably the first indie band that I was really into, so obviously it's such an important moment when they come back with their third studio album. But, being a huge fan of their earlier work, specially Hot Fuss, I'm a bit disappointed with the new album.

On one side, they stepped back a little bit from the arena rock style of Sam's Town, and incorporated more elements of their debut, which was a nice movement, especially because the U2 inspired Sam's Town pissed a lot of people. Plus they expanded their sound, having different rhythms such as salsa, samba and afro beats. They are an ambitious band and pay close attention to what's going on the pop world. Thus, they write a chorus a la MGMT ("Neon Tiger") and incorporate African influences like Vampire weekend did ("This is your life"). The final result is a record with a lot of different sides, one that shows a band with a strong will to grow. How can someone be pissed by things like that? No wonder, most reviews have been positive. The killers became very mature, everyone says. But I say there's no real passion here.

Yes, it's true that most reviews have been positive, but no one is really saying that this is the album of the year or something like that. Why? Simply because it's not! It's not even close. Sure they show a lot of faces, but the final product is more like a collection of songs than an album. There's too much variation. They don't show exactly what they want to be. Trying to be different things, the band manages to be almost nothing.

Another problem is the lack of guitars in the record. At many points, everything seems too slow, too pop, too... Coldplay! This is not necessarily a bad thing if you like Coldplay, but isn't having Keane bad (good?) enough?

Not everything is bad news, thought. The best moment is easily "Spaceman". With a great chorus and high speed, this is one of the greatest tracks of the year. Lead single "Human" delivers a very nice dance feeling and, even thought it could be faster, it's almost instant pleasure. A plus here is the non sense phrase "Are we human or are we dancer?". The simple fact that a lot of people cared about the meaning of this makes it pretty cool. "Neon Tiger" is sure a bit weird and may not please in the first listen but it grows a lot on you once you give it enough time. It has the potential to become a very good single.

"A Dustland Fairytale" revisits Sam's Town being one of the best songs in the first listen, but even after sometime listening to it, I still think it's a good song. "Losing Touch" is a bit slow and has some weird instruments. It's not a bad song but it sounds so small compared to their past works. Finally, bonus track "A Crippling Blow" is one of the best surprises. How could this be out of the album if it's better than half of the tracks?

Songs like "Good night, travel well" and "Joy Ride" are simply horrible and it can be a challenge to hear them more than once. "The world we live in" and "I can't stay" are not bad, but are easily forgettable and it's hard to see how can they could be better than the tracks in Sawdust. More or less the same is true for "This is your life". With an afro beat that reminds me of The Lion King, this could fit in a Disney movie but common! We're talking about The Killers here!

My grades for each track: (out of 10):

Losing Touch 7

Human 8.5

Spaceman 9.5

Joy Ride 3

A Dustland Fairytale 7.5

This Is Your Life 5.5

I Can't Stay 5

Neon Tiger 8

The World We Live In 5.5

Goodnight, Travel Well 2

A Crippling Blow 6.5

Forget About What I said 5.5

Tidalwave 5

To sum up, there is an outstanding single ("Spaceman"), two very good songs ("Human" and "Neon Tiger") and more two or three good songs. Thus I would say that they released an album that is half good, half very bad.

So what's the big deal? Many bands around don't have even half an album that is good right? Yes, that's right, Day & Age is tolerable, but it's still far behind their previous stuff...

Final grade: 6 (out of 10)

The 10 best songs of 2008

Lists are one of my favorite things to do when I don't want to work but yet can't stand to be busy getting depressed. And you know, the year is ending, and the temptation of making "best of" lists is growing. Ideally, I would like to wait for the end of the year, but given prospects for the end of the year (and most notably, the fact that the new Franz's album comes out only next year), I thought it was safe to do a list of my most favorite tracks of the year. 

It wasn't an easy job and I had to exclude amazing tracks from acts that really impressed me during 2008 such as Metallica and Katy Perry. But the final result is a good summary of my preferences and you can see it below. Later I'll possibly do lists of best concerts and albums, but you can get some hints from below. In particular, it's not hard to imagine that MGMT will score pretty high in the other lists also. It's hard for me to describe how much I like their debut album. It's probably true that I listened to The Subways All or Nothing more this year, but MGMT touches me in a deeper sense. it's fun and danceable like other bands that I like, but it gave something new, that basically nobody else is doing, while The Subways album wasn't really a big surprise, given their debut album.  

MGMT's only real competitor would be Franz Ferdinand's Tonight, but that comes out in January... so it's time to pretend MGMT is the biggest planet on earth! Enough bullshit (sarcasm?), let's get down to business!  

And the best 10 songs of the year are:

10. Never Miss a Beat, Kaiser Chiefs:

No, this is not very deep, but Kaiser Chiefs never was and that's exactly the point. They are not the kind of band to be taken seriously and they know that. They also know that few bands are better to party and that's their strength. Plus, I keep thinking about the whole irony in taking a PHD and listening to a track that says "It's cool to know nothing". It's stupid and brilliant at the same time.

9. Discipline, Nine Inch Nails:

The weight behind Nine Inch Nails tracks always turned me on. And here they add to that weight a disco beat, something perfect for a fan of Metallica and Franz like me.

8. If You Seek Amy, Britney Spears:

After everybody tried to "kill" her and yet she's around, it became easier to like her. Plus this is surprisingly ambiguous (If you're sick of me?) and interesting. Everybody loves a comeback and I'm no exception to that rule.

7. Walcott, Vampire Weekend:

If you know me, you knew that I would put Vampire Weekend somewhere here. I just think it's so easy to like them. Like The Strokes, they are all about having fun with great pop tunes, but without being just another copycat... Why this track? Because they closed Popped Music Festival with that and it's fucking great live. A good summary of how good they are.

6. Great DJ, The Ting Tings:

They have so many hits that it was quite hard to choose which track to put here. I chose this one because it's more like the typical indie anthem, and because it was the the track that made me fall in love with them.

5. Alice Practice, Crystal Castles:

Being nice or not with fans, "stealing" or not music from other artists, nobody can deny that Crystal Castles have now their place in music history. As a sample of their greatness, this track is crazy live, it's like the world is falling apart, one of those feelings that it's hard to describe, you have to experience it yourself...

4. Time To Pretend, MGMT:

This is the kind of track that fits everywhere. In movies soundtracks, in dancefloors, at home. MGMT is the coolest band of the year and a good part of that is due to this amazing song.

3. Spaceman, The Killers:

The Killers are one of those bands that you either love or hate. I was always at the love side but the new album didn't impress me that much. However things are different with this song. The synthesizers are all over the place, the chorus is close to perfection... this is everything that puts Hot Fuss among my most favorite albums. I just wished the rest of Day & Age was nearly this good.

2. Shake! Shake!, The Subways:

This is the number one song in my last.fm. It combines the energy of their first album with, say, the balls of their sophomore cd. Something, to say the least, very impressive. For sometime this year, I could hardly listen to anything else.

1. Kids, MGMT:

From the best album of 2008, comes the best song of the year. Like most of their album, Kids is simply irresistible: It's danceable, fun, original (for this decade's standards...). It's a symbol of the year when New York (more specifically Brooklyn) was put definitely back in the map of indie rock. Whether this band will still be around 2 years from now, it's not clear, but in 2008 they were THE band!

      

Thanksgiving

So, 10 million years later, I'm writing again here, but from now on, I promise to update the blog at least once a month. A lot of stuff happened with me since the last time I wrote here. I passed the qualifiers (YEAH!), saw Muse in Brazil, got chicken pocks (seriously, I almost died...), started to teach undergrads... Now I'm going more often to concerts and less often to dance clubs. I still like to dance but there are so many amazing bands to see at New York. Plus I still didn't find the "right" club for me. Webster Hall does a decent job most of the time, but it can suck hard sometimes and it's always the same...

As for the sickness, this semester has been very hard for me. I was always very healthy but now I'm getting sick more easily. Now I'm fine but I get the feeling things can get ugly if I get sick again. That is so because I feel it may be an allergy to my new place (or at least, that's what the doctor told me). The problem is that I don't want to move out, so I really hope it's not an allergy, that I just had bad luck and things will start to get better from now on.

Today is Thanksgiving day and I spent the day completely alone, without talking to anyone. It's surprising how that can be sad and comforting at the same time. The sad part comes from realizing that I don't have real friends here and nobody really cares if I'm dead or alive. The comforting part comes from realizing that I'm not so bad this. It's good to have a time of my own and it's good to know that I can do amazing stuff without relying on other people. Such mixed feelings pretty much sum up what I am and what inspired the title of this blog. A contradiction...

Since almost everything in my life involves music, I'm listening to Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams now. I survived a lot of challenges in my life but in the end I'm always going on, but alone. The problem is that I'm tired of that and want to make real friends. And although I'm anti-social by nature, I keep trying. The result is almost always bad but I can't help. I do have to try. Changing Green Day's lyrics, I would say that I'm still alive but I don't necessarily (don't want to) walk alone...