The Glow, Pt. 2

Today's Music That Jason Is (almost) Over the Moon About is The Glow, Pt. 2 by The Microphones. I have to credit Pandora for introducing me to a few of the tracks from this album, and also to eMusic for actually having it.

(An aside: eMusic, you have a pretty good catalog, but we're only going to be friends until you get some Yoko Kanno and/or Seatbelts.)

I don't really know much about the history of this album. I don't know when it was made, where the musicians came from, or what they are doing now. What I do know is this: the album is a little too long but very good. It's not exactly a pop album, or a symphonic album, but the kind of album that has fairly diverse instrumentation and doesn't overuse anything.

Sometimes I wish there were fewer songs on this album, or that the overall sound had a little more dynamic range, but as a whole, the mood and musicianship dwarf the minor faults I had with Glow Pt. 2. It's a reserved work, something that probably wouldn't suit other activities so well, but that is very rewarding for a dedicated listener. I suppose this album is like a person at a party who doesn't command a great deal of attention, but who has the best stories if you are willing to listen.

Often, I like to compare the sound of albums or bands to others that I would consider their peers. For this album, though, I had a hard time coming up with much. The instrumentation might make me think of Beirut, but the sound isn't really there. The only thing that really seems fitting is Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. This is heady praise, and probably a bit undeserved; I don't think Glow is quite the juggernaut that Aeroplane, one of the finest albums recorded in my lifetime, is, but it's certainly worth a listen. The fact that I thought Glow even warranted comparison should say something.

In short: Take this album on a drive by yourself, and never look back.

In Other News:
I worry too much about things.

"Sleep is like a kitty. It's that simple. Sometimes you just have to be comfortable and warm, and it will come to you, sometimes it will pounce on you when you least want it, and other times it will fight you and run from you, if you can find it at all." -Me, yesterday-ish.

Mass Romantic

Man am I tired today. I think tonight I'm going to go home and just read until I don't feel like reading any more, and then just sleep. I'm finally trying to read Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. This book is exceptionally well-written, but I haven't enough of it yet to tell you more than that. I'm also reading Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, which is humorous though without the gravity of Gilead, to be certain.

Today's Music That Jason Talks About All The Freakin' Time is the first album from The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic. This album isn't really the first exposure I had to the NPs - that would be "July Jones" from Electric Version - but when I finally got around to purchasing all (three) of their albums, I made a point to listen to this one first.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the New Pornographers, and shame on you, they're sort of a Canadian indie-rock supergroup. When they formed, they all had previous music careers (A.C. Newman with Zumpano, Dan Bejar with Destroyer, Neko Case solo, etc.) and this was simply a side project for them. Newman wrote most of the songs, with Bejar contributing a few. What happened was that they made some smart and extremely catchy indie power-pop that took on a life of its own and somehow managed to be bigger than the collective works of all the involved parties. It sounds like a group that doesn't quite have direction, but that makes up for it by having more talent than any one group probably should.

The album doesn't take itself too seriously; it really sounds like a bunch of musicians having a good time without straying from the song structure too much. The record is somewhat inconsistent, but even the lows are hardly a burden. The strongest track is easily "Letter From an Occupant", though "The Fake Headlines", "Slow Descent Into Alcoholism", and the title track are excellent as well. So many good songs on this record! The NPs make albums that I can listen to without having to skip a single track, which I can't say about even some of the better CDs in my collection. I easily see "Mass Romantic" as being the soundtrack to a carefree day at an amusement park or campground with a lot of my friends. Before my recent promotional testing, I listened to music that I knew would put me in a good mood - it's no coincidence that the NPs were the most well-represented group in the playlist I made for the event.

I'm sure I'll review the other NPs albums at some point, but Mass Romantic is a good place to start if you're interested. This album doesn't quite have the maturity and depth of their later works, but if I were to give it a letter grade, it would have to be 9/10 at the very least.