Skip to main content

ALBUM REVIEW: "RELAXER" by Alt-J

   RELAXER, the third full length from UK trio alt-J, is anything but relaxing, and a tight 40 minute exploration of sonic weirdness, catchy hooks and odd songwriting. It feels a lot more concise than 2014's This Is All Yours, which while being certainly ambitious was too long for it's own good, unnecessary weight washing out the great songs into an exhausting 55 minutes. RELAXER is a slim 8 songs at about 40 minutes, and benefits greatly from this extra layer of efficiency. The depths of the spiralling madness, sinister soundscapes and occasional menace are made more immediate and sharp simply by cutting the run-time; there doesn't seem to be a single second on RELAXER that could be cut. Despite this continuation and development of the more experimental side of alt-J's hard to pin down sound, they have retained a strong sense of melody across onto this new album, and it's this balancing act between the accessible and the weird that keeps the album always interesting but never completely alienating. RELAXER really is an album you can get your teeth into, with dense soundscapes you can pick apart time after time and keep pulling out new things. Despite being typically grandiose, there is an intimacy to the songs that underlies all the experimentation and eccentricities and is in sharper focus than on any of alt-J's previous releases. A really strong release from a group that are determined to keep following their own rules.

   Favourite Songs: In Cold Blood, Hit Me Like That Snare, Deadcrush and Pleader

    Least Favourite Song: House Of The Rising Sun

   Rating: A

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NOSTALGIA PICK #3: "The Glow Pt. 2" and "Mount Eerie" by The Microphones

   There aren't many artists that have been making consistently exciting music for as long as Phil Elverum has been under his various musical pseudonyms, the most notable being The Microphones and Mount Eerie, the latter being the second incarnation after The Microphones' Mount Eerie.  From experimental beginnings to rugged indie-folk to what was essentially Phil's black metal album in Black Wooden Ceiling  and back again, nothing he has done has felt like a re-tread of what had come before, but somehow he has managed to maintain an instantly recognisable sonic fingerprint across all his projects.    For me the peak moments in his expansive discography come in the form of 2001's The Glow Pt. 2 and 2003's Mount Eerie .      A saw an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney showing the work of Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima, which was a series of installations ruminating on life and death and the cycle it forms. All of the in...
Post a Comment
Read more

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...
Post a Comment
Read more