Word: albums
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...meat of the album occasionally gets caught up in the experimental flamboyance of Muhly’s compositions, but never strays far from the more immediate poppiness of “Go Do.” “Boy Lilikoi” features fluttering flutes and pounding snare drums which would feel perfectly at home in a symphony, and yet it feels far more down-to-earth than such instrumentals would suggest. The vocals and percussion, which are mixed unusually high throughout the record, dominate Muhly’s complex arrangement and contribute significantly to that unpretentious quality...
...reflects an Iceland feeling the effect of global warming. Jonsi has created an undoubtedly ambitious work that stretches the definition of “pop” to its very breaking point, but its unabashed optimism and the simple beauty of the music make it a thoroughly enthralling album...
It’s rare that the final track of an album is its most telling, but Brooklyn-based alternative rock band MGMT’s sophomore release, “Congratulations,” achieves just that with its title track; an acoustic ode to success and the acclam that accompanies it. The song, much like their debut album’s opener, “Time To Pretend,” is puzzlingly ironic, in that one is pretty sure it is ironic, but can only guess to what extent. Whereas “Time to Pretend?...
...their debut album “Oracular Spectacular,” MGMT—comprised of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyndarden—traversed a wide variety of styles, achieving most success with the psychedelic synthpop hit “Kids.” For their second album, however, the group have refused to release any singles. Instead they recorded a cohesive body of work meant to be heard in one continuous sitting. As such, “Congratulations” contains no songs that come close to the New Order-inspired thrills of “Kids...
Stylistically, “Congratulations” does not diverge from many of the album tracks on “Oracular Spectacular.” The 1970s prog rock and ambient music that inspired “Weekend Wars” and “The Handshake” are the key touchstones on this record. Heck, “Congratulations” even has a track called “Brian Eno”—one of the album’s more straightforward cuts, avoiding the numerous shifts in style that define most of the tracks...