Friday, October 09, 2009

Record Review: Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong


via Ragged Words
By Daniel Greenwood

This time last year Vivian Girls released their self-titled debut to general surprise and applause on these shores. The so-called ‘Noise revival’ in North America lent few ripples to Europe’s banal mainstream, where the break-up of Oasis is a grave occurrence. Bands like Times New Viking and Eat Skull are nothing names here, whereas fellow alt-guitar clangers Vivian Girls tuck neatly inside a Guardian reader’s indie quota. What makes Vivian Girls likeable is in part their quaintness and good looks, but really it’s the songs that do the work. From Vivian Girls, ‘Tell the World’ is witty and emotive, and ‘I Believe in Nothing’ marries a strong harmonic melody with a nihilistic mantra. That debut has a lot to say for itself, it’s honest and loveable.

Speaking to Ragged Words last December, the band were eager to get back into the studio and have their second record out the following September, their first with Ali Koehler on drums. So, September rolls around and Vivian Girls’ sophomore work is here. But maybe the desire to fully-initiate Ali on tape has been to the detriment of the songs.

Everything Goes Wrong feels rushed in a way that’s unlike the rush you get from Vivian Girls. ‘Tension’ is perhaps the highlight, with a hint of The Mamas & Papas in the vocal harmony collapsing behind Cassie Ramone’s tremulous Interpol impression and Ali’s gusting cymbals. Hole are of interest here, this record could have sounded like Live Through This, though these girls are too young to write a record like that, or at least not as experienced as Courtney Love. ‘Walking Alone at Night’, ‘I Have No Fun’ and ‘Can’t Get Over You’ pick up where Vivian Girls left off, and it’s a really strong sing-along opening to the record. One intentional change in the structure of the songs is the addition of Hardcore gestures three-quarters of the way through some of the later tracks. ‘When I’m Gone’ disbands from its form and delves into faceless crashing. These attempts to give the songs more depth in length don’t work so well. It’s not necessarily filler, just a trio of fledgling musicians finding what works best.

In life, everything does go wrong in one way or another, most of the time. But it has to before it can ever be alright again. And if it hasn’t worked so well for Vivian Girls this year, you can be sure it will – maybe this time next year? Everything Goes Wrong will certainly do for now.

Record Review: Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs


via Ragged Words:
by Daniel Greenwood

Experience is on Yo La Tengo’s side, with this New Jersey trio of Ira Kaplin, Georgia Hubley and James McNew having ploughed through the 1990s and now seeing out the 2000s with another very good record. The band have dropped at least one great album in each of the past two decades: I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One(1996) and Suddenly Everything Turned Itself Inside Out (2000). This is definitely a band you can rely on. And with Popular Songs, that stance hasn’t changed.

Opener ‘Here to Fall’ feels like a more contained and therefore volatile Yo La Tengo epic, with a cinematic orchestra ducking and diving as Ira Kaplin declares ‘I know you’re worried/I’m worried too’. Popular Songs has a throw-away feel to it, laid back and loose, but not in the melancholy way that Suddenly Everything is. Maybe it feels like the hard work is behind this band. Though, that’s not to say they don’t work hard, evidently they do, but the band’s craft is effortless and refined.

The first nine tracks make up a Pop record, and that’s clearly something intentional, because the final three songs comprise an almost entirely different album. Here’s where the uninitiated might turn the stereo off, or some of the uber-initiated might delete it from their hard drive. Perhaps it’s a trick, with Popular Songs luring the listener into the experience, expecting Beach Boys off-shoots and doo-wop, which there’s plenty of. ‘More Stars than there are in Heaven’ reels you in further, but no hook is forthcoming, instead there’s the near-drone acoustic ambience of ‘The Fireside’. Here Yo La Tengo slip their shoes off and sit back, allowing the looping reverb to melt into the blur somewhere above the song. And, eleven minutes later, the sort of alternative guitar squalor that’s such a fine fixture on I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One turns up to slap you in the chops for fifteen minutes. ‘And the Glitter is Gone’, indeed.

Yo La Tengo can do what they like, but then they always have, successful or not they’ve always written honest songs that have proven popular over time. This band are easy to love. But as with the upper tier of Popular Songs, love isn’t so short nor sweet as you might expect.