“Five Albums I’ve Been Enjoying This Term” by Alex Tippett

Five Albums I’ve Been Enjoying This Term That You Might Like Too

B y A l e x T i p p e t t

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (2010)

Ariel Pink takes every pop music trope your mom, dad, and favorite advertising executive love and skewers them mercilessly. On each of the songs on this album bits and pieces of coherent bubble gum pop songs come in, only to be interrupted by different pop cliches or drowned out by static and nonsensical lyrics. The lead single “Round and Round” is interrupted by a ringing phone, while “L’etat (Acc. to the Widow’s maid)” is punctuated by the occasional childlike scream. Yet these interruptions are never abrasive - instead they add character to these already colorful songs. By manipulating and pasting together such a variety of sounds, Ariel Pink creates a fascinating pastiche that remains constantly engaging due to its schizophrenic nature.

Favorite Songs – Beverly Kills, Fright Night (Nevermore)

Talking Heads – Remain in Light (1980)

Their fourth studio album, Remain in Light is widely seen as the Talking Heads’ best work. A revolutionary album that fused African poly-rhythms with pop music for the first time, Remain in Light is incredibly catchy and emotional album. Most of the album is composed of pulsating and driving jams that are overlaid with David Byrne’s typical cryptic lyrics, heavily resembling James Murphy’s performances with LCD Soundsystem. Byrne’s tortured performance combined with these driving grooves lends Remain in Light a terrible sense of urgency that is only slightly assuaged by slower tracks like “Once in a Lifetime.” Thanks to Brain Eno’s production there is real clarity in this album. Even as the jams grow increasingly complex and intricate, each instrument is given a large amount of space within the mix allowing you to hear and appreciate various subtleties. Remain in Light is a classic album for a reason and you should probably take sometime to listen to it.

Favorite Tracks – Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Houses in Motion

Alex G – DSU (2014)

Alex G is a 21 year old singer-songwriter from Philadelphia and DSU is his breakout album. A lo-fi guitar based bedroom rock album in the vein of The Microphones/Mount Erie, or The Antlers’ In the Attic of the Universe, DSU is incredibly simple yet evocative. Most of the songs on this album fall short of the two minute mark, yet their simplicity and understatement allows them to pack an emotional punch. Alex G’s production, while muddy at times, incorporates interesting flourishes that keep the album from sounding like any other college kid with a microphone and a guitar. The songs “Axesteel” and “Rejoyce” in particular stand out, the first due to its use of a looped scream as a motif throughout the song, and the second thanks to to the wonked out guitar effects during the first few seconds. The album as a whole is extremely well written and worth a listen.

Favorite Tracks – Boy, Harvey

Fela Kuti - Afrodisiac (1973)

When Brian Eno and David Byrne were writing Remain In Light, one of the albums they listened constantly to, and sought to emulate, was Fela Kuti’s Afrodisiac. Fela Kuti was the creator of the genre of Afro-beat, a fusion of Jazz, Funk, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. A 4-song album that comes in at 40 minutes, Afrodisiac is Afro-beat at its finest. Fela’s vocals are secondary to the tight jams that make up the album. Horns, drums, piano, guitars and various traditional instruments are all work in this album, ebbing and flowing over one another underneath Fela and his backup vocalists’ voices. There is no moment on this album where the energy ebbs, and it has kept me coming back for more.

Favorite Tracks – Je’nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me)

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (2009)

In 2009, Fuck Buttons played at The Cave and that was, based one grainy youtube video, the coolest show at the Cave ever. Based around screaming synths and driving drum beats Fuck Buttons are an electronic duo that creates epic songs that rival the grandiosity of Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Ros. While those bands rely on guitar based compositions, Fuck Buttons draw much of their inspiration from Techno and House music, relying on four on the floor beats to drive their songs forward. Most of the songs on this album build slowly, while morphing and adding and removing layers until they explode at a climax. Thanks to carefully constructed melodies, these climaxes pack significant emotional punches.

Favorite Tracks – The Lisbon Maru, Surf Solar