Christopher Hopkins

Neon Indian has basically remained consistent throughout all their albums and Alan Palomo has been able to pump up the quality of each one immensely. Their debut, Psychic Chasms, was a warm, summery dive into the emergence of chillwave. A few years later, he revealed his second album, Era Extrana, and remained steadfast that their 80s synths and adoration of nostalgia would keep them relevant and true while bringing a new swing to the genre. Now with VEGA INTL. Night School, the production value is top notch, the style is slightly different for the better, and by god is it good.

Palomo and company outdid themselves with this release. The sounds that are created and experimented with throughout the album are odd and fantastic, like the Pan’s Labyrinth of new sounds, different from anything we’ve seen before and extremely memorable. From the distorted saxophone of “Dear Skorpio Magazine” to the Crash Bandicoot-esque electric piano from “Street Level”, it sounds a whole lot funkier than anything that the group has done. Palomo himself does bring an extra ounce of soul to his songs with glitched falsettos and a vocal delivery that sounds like his own take on Jamiroquai.

The flow of this album works incredibly as well. There is great single material to almost all of these songs, but the ones that were picked, “Annie”, “The Glitzy Hive” and “Slumlord” all stick out the most. “Slumlord” in particular has two songs that follow it up so perfectly, it gets points on its own for progressive song placement. “Slumlord’s Re-Lease” and “Techno Clique” are offshoots of the single with “Re-Lease” being the bridge between the two. The way it all comes together is nothing short of genius.

The longest track on the album, “Baby’s Eyes” breaks up the album well with this distorted yet sensual slow descent into a hazy glow. Every synthesizer is bouncy and the guitar is reminiscent of the quick “chk” of Prince and other 80s pop stars at the time. “C’est La Vie (say the casualties!)” is the Neon Indian that fans would be used to; a call back to Psychic Chasms with treble-increased guitars and bubbly blips of textures spread across the track like globs of jam on a slice of bread. “61 Cygni Ave.” has that Miami Vice/island reggae sound with quick basslines and guitars lining the backbeat instead of front and center. A new-school old-school party anthem. Even the closer, a live bootleg of “News from the Sun” has single potential, and is a pop hit that was a bit more destined for summer.

Listening to “VEGA INTL. Night School” reminds me of the endless nostalgia that we’ve all grown accustomed to hearing. We listening to music that all uses samples of older, better songs. This album doesn’t need samples to keep it alive, it’s a homage to that time, not a ripoff that we constantly hear. And that’s coming from someone who just recommended a album made up of nothing BUT samples. Neon Indian could’ve just made something better than Era Extrana in terms of experimentation and consistency and a much better callback to themselves and the era they love.

Out of all the albums that were coming out this year, there were really none that I was excited for. The slippery slope of bad music and mediocre comebacks seemed to be riding all the way from 2014 to now, and my ecstasy waned for the most part… Until I heard that Tame Impala was coming out with a new album. From the time Currents was announced, I had the greatest expectations from one of the highest-quality bands that produce the lushest, warmest, and absolutely breathtaking albums since 2010. Kevin Parker and his psychedelic confidants continued to let loose hit after hit after hit, and I wanted to know if there was a direction even farther than up.

Currents provides the transition from pure psychedelic rock that we all know and love to the realm of disco-rock, R&B, and pop that keeps the elements of production from the previous albums. The journey throughout these three albums has given us the smoothest ride through progressive sound that I have heard maybe since The Horrors. Tame Impala writes poetic love songs, tricky funk that’s less Mark Ronson and more Ariel Pink, and stories about weak men showing their mistakes out in full force. The music itself is as warm as ever, with more synthesizers, bells, and whistles than there has been before on a Tame Impala album. There isn’t a huge lack of actual instruments, but the focus here is the bass, which is what I loved from “Lonerism.” It’s fuzzy, funky, and so fun.

Tracks on this release don’t expand pass 8 minutes, and the length of every song is just long enough with variety to keep you satisfied with what you’ve just heard. For your prog-rock heads, yes, the longer songs have just enough change to keep you invested. “Eventually” has this thriving beginning and evolving into something of a ballad with the boom engrossing the whole track. “The Less I Know The Better” opens with this bass riff that moves you throughout the song with it’s downright funk dirtiness. Parker’s signature falsetto calms it a bit during the chorus, but it breaks it with his wail as soon as he needs to interrupt the sappiness. “Past Life” is interesting with the narrative being told through this distorted, disembodied voice leading us through and using the band for backup. “Disciples,” even for its length, is an outstanding track that inserts everything it needs to within it’s <2 minute runtime. Sounds like Parker took some hints from Mac DeMarco and added his own 70’s flair to it.

“Cause I’m A Man” is the pinnacle of this album, and they couldn’t have picked a better single release. The ballad of this man who proves his weaknesses is something that I really haven’t heard; I don’t think anyone else has heard, either. The bass and synth combo that rides the chorus is an experiment with a positive result, like coming up with new chemical compounds of sonic energy in a sound lab. “Reality in Motion,” for some reason, reminds me of the last day of school in A Goofy Movie. Don’t ask why, but it would be Max riding his skateboard above us in slow motion. The final track, “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” sounds like “Cause I’m A Man” and its scheming, evil, scientist brother. It’s slow. It is anything but bombastic, with a subtlety to it including acoustic guitars that flutter like a “Think Tank”-era Blur.

In any case, Kevin Parker and Tame Impala have done it again with a sound just different enough to suck you in and enough of the same to keep fans of the older material. To say that this album got me hyped enough to look for more music to review would be the absolute truth.

Swervedriver is one of those bands that emerged during the early 90’s when the shoegaze craze was at its peak. Although almost no one knows about them as they were shadowed by the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Ride, they released some critically-acclaimed stuff in their prime. Mezcal Head was the first album I heard from them and everything in that reeks of the Grindy Nineties, with intricate bass lines, outros that seem to go on forever, songs of love, drugs and government, everything. I Wasn’t Born to Lose You is their first album in 17 years and comes riding the wave of alt-rockers calming down, but letting their songs age like wine.

While their power on Mezcal Head and Raise was something to be admired, what they did with that vigor was something of a miracle. The combination of vocalist Adam Franklin’s almost apathetic voice and the high energy of the instrumentals thrashing away with feedback and gusto is what makes this different from the stereotypical shoegaze band. However, this album is more of a callback to times that were once grungy and dirty, a callback that only lasts about 6 songs in before falling off into the inevitability of age.

The cleanliness of the album does bring the 90’s band into the 21st century of production, however it loses it’s charm and edge. What made Mezcal Head so good was the grind of everything and the limitations of production at the time. The instruments seemed heavier and fuller by comparison to many of the comeback albums of today. There is no “Blowin’ Cool” esqe track here, nothing that’s very ambitious in it of itself. The most the album changes is in the tracks “Everso” and “Red Queen Arms Race”, which tries to be as grindy as it can, but it’s a processed fuzz and feels manufactured. None of the songs are really warm in terms of their effects, and the plethora of effects used on previous albums are shorn down to maybe 4.

The album isn’t all bad as I make it out to be. “Autodidact” is my favorite track off the record and is an instant classic. It was the taste that not everything that is clean from them has to be a sub-par track. “Everso” returns to the grind with a long, somberly track that increases in ferocity everso (ha, get it) slightly to a pounding climax. “For A Day Like Tomorrow” sounds more like a Swervedriver track, it’s got that 90’s tempo to it sounding like a love child between the English bands of the era and Dinosaur Jr.

There are some gems on this album, but the disappointing outweighs the good in this case and didn’t leave me with my musical fill. This is more so a textbook example of when you should increase production value and when you shouldn’t. If this was the final release for these guys, I wouldn’t put it against them. In fact, it’s just one of those albums I would forget that I had on my iPod.

Flying Lotus has always been a favorite of mine when I made the choice to expand my musical horizons. Ever since his second album, Los Angeles, I fell in love with the hip-hop beats and overall experimentation and how far his motifs would go. You’re Dead is one of those surreal gems that shows through the drips of jazz, jazz-fusion, straight-up hip-hop and rap, how talented he is and how years can put on influences you never thought you’d use.

During the opening tracks, “Theme”, “Tesla”, “Cold Dead”, and “Fkn Dead” you hear the grating electric guitars and the lovely and smooth saxophones that combine in a way that emphasizes the theme of the album: death. Besides the titles that just have the word “dead” sprinkled on it, the sounds throughout the record are dark, eerie, and even sometimes legitimately otherworldly in their execution. Of course the crown jewel in this album is the single with Kendrick Lemar, “Never Catch Me”. This has to be one of the best songs not only on this album, but in the entirety of FlyLo’s discography, and seeing him work with Kendrick on lyrics that push forth the contemplation of death and sometimes the injustice that happens when someone dies, is beyond gorgeous, it’s heavenly (pun completely intended)

As you get deeper into the album,  you sometimes begin to question if this is actually him producing all of this (in a good way, I promise). “Turkey Dog Coma” is a fast-paced jazz jam complete with guitar that sounds like Yes, drums that come from the very essence of post-bop and avant-garde jazz, and the slightest flutters spread throughout the track that actually kind of remind me of the sea of floating lanterns in Tangled. “Stirring”, although short, is a throwback tribute to Bibio‘s Silver Wilkinson with the arpeggiated acoustic guitar; like a campfire near the River Styx. Speaking of the Styx, our ferryman, “Coronus, the Terminator” is a gospel meander through the sights of the Underworld. You can hear and see in the distance this lanky figure coming to pick you up in a dilapidated rowboat, and as you travel down you can see these strong but pale workers renovating the Underworld under their leader’s orders.

One of the most pleasant surprises is Angel Deradoorian, formerly of Dirty Projectors making an appropriate appearance on the woozy and dreamlike “Siren Song” that continues on the fantasy of the River Styx with some wah-wah guitars from an old Barry White song and a slow beat that grows just that much more cacophonous with each passing “ah” from her. “Turtles” has a vintage sound to it with the bass levels raised up a little more, still making this dream-like state a tribal R&B experience. “Ready Err Not” sounds like something out of an underwater level in an updated Super Mario game, and while… interesting to listen to, doesn’t really add that much for me. “Eyes Above” does come back with some beautiful jazz work again and immediately fades into “Moment of Hesitation”, which is subtly chaotic. Yeah, it’s an oxymoron, but with the tempo and style all over the place, but being played so soft, that’s really all you can describe it as.

The Thundercat vocal tracks have become a staple that I didn’t really feel needed to be included on the last album. “Mmmhmmm” was the exception, but they’re starting to sound the same. Case and point: “Descent into Madness”, good thing it’s mercifully short. And it’s a good thing that “The Boys Who Died In Their Sleep” is short too. The garbled vocals sounds like something I would just play with on GarageBand and is more distracting than interesting. The lyrics on the other hand are very sad and it’s touching, I just wish it didn’t have that intro. “Obligatory Cadence” is a little more funky and forgiving than “Coronus” but it still manages to get you interested in another dreamy walkabout track. Niki Randa‘s appearance is something I’ve been looking forward to since her songs on the last album. Her smooth, soulful, breathy and quiet voice gets a much needed boost by Ellison’s production in the spacey “Your Potential//The Beyond”. Finally, “The Protest” is an encouraging end to an album dealing with death with the chorus chanting “We will live on, forever and ever.” The ending beat actually sounds like the callback to Los Angeles, and I hope that means that album will continue to live on.

SBTRKT, the reclusive electronic artist, came into the fray with his self-titled debut album that combined house, some dubstep elements and minimalist soul. With collaborations under his belt with Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, Londoner Jessie Ware and relative newcomer, the soulful Sampha, his debut was a breath of fresh digital air in this era of stagnant EDM and soulless pop. Of course we were all waiting for something else that he could knock our socks off with, and with the announcement of Wonder Where We Land, our prayers seemed to be answered. Unfortunately, it’s not the triumphant return we were hoping for and instead we have a bit of a mish-mash of good ideas executed poorly, and some perfectly fine tracks in terms of the way he goes about making them.

We start off with some ambient tracks like “Day 1” and “Day 5” which aren’t his best, but the little motifs do bring some cool noises and engrossing atmospheres to the table. “Lantern” is one of the best tracks on here, and one that I’ve been searching for, it’s one that has SBTRKT being SBTRKT: an instrumental with jarring changes and a fast-paced foundation underneath it all. However within the first 5 tracks, “Wonder Where We Land” and “Higher” don’t seem as on-point as these others do. “Higher” features rapper Raury just everyday spitting over an honestly cool beat, but the consistency doesn’t deter the lyrics. “Wonder Where We Land” is a Sampha track at its most meh with no real buildup, but like rain you’re wishing to go away.

Things start to pick up with the guest vocals and ideas with “Look Away” featuring Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, who’s autotuned aspects work well with her natural voice. However, the same problem with a lot of these songs is prevalent here: It ends abruptly with no room for fades or growth. “Temporary View” is the track that is most like what I expected from this album. It sounds like a b-side from the debut, only with a lot softer electronics and a gorgeous, deepening piano that sends you through space as depicted by 2001: A Space Odyssey. “NEW DORP, NEW YORK.” is one of the most fun singles that I’ve heard, and that combined with the pure nonsensical lyrics by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig just makes for a strange trip through The City That Never Sleeps. “Everybody Knows” is what I would loved to see this album be about. It sounds a bit more like Disclosure, but even then, the combination of the sultry sleepy vocals and the strings that come up in the background is a must-have for a electro-funk playlist.

The tracks from here on out are a bit more experimental and you begin to see a natural progression through this mess, although it’s still a mess. “Problem (Solved)” with the lovely Jessie Ware, is short but mystical with the minimalist piano being the first of the movement into traditional instruments with Wonder Where We Land. It’s an R&B waft through the cherry blossoms. “If It Happens” is more of a John Legend-esque piano interlude with Sampha, and it works within the last five songs, but not in the whole context of the album, beautiful but misguided. “Gon Stay” is the most ambitious of the songs with Sampha though. It jumps from the soulful vocals to the instrumental with a gorgeous, delayed bass that’s akin to a sadder version of Rusted Root’s “Send Me On My Way”. It has very little electronic blips and boops in it, and it’s like SBTRKT’s journey into classic rock and blue-eyed soul. The chopped-and-screwed piano on “The Light” is dark and plays a nice hook, even though the tune seems to lack a lot of punch for the vocals to show their true potential like “Pharaohs” on the debut. Finally, “Voices in My Head” has nothing short of the same problems that “Higher” did, a childish rap with a killer instrumental backing it. The jazz-oriented music from Warpaint doesn’t deserve to have A$AP Ferg rap over it. It mirrors the biggest problem that I have with this album: Killer introduction but a less than stellar ending.

Topshelf Records has a place near and dear to my heart.

It’s the label that signed one of the bands that I sat in awe watching back in the 10th grade days of post-rock yore. Now that I get to review one of their newest releases, I can take a little taste of their full catalog. The Jazz June is my first victi-I mean, review. Hailing from Philadelphia, I thought these guys were gonna be your typical pop-punk quartet of teenagers. (I actually thought they were a jazz band because of the name, but I digress). I was pleasantly surprised with the first two songs that breathed a little bit of somber and blissfully apathetic life into my library.

“Over Underground” has the intro of something a little dreamier than what pop-punkers now bring to the table, but it evolves into a catchy song with a really aggressive hook that the vocalist really doesn’t use in the next couple of tracks. This is basically the storm before the calm (yes you read that right). “After the Earthquake” has this style akin to The Dismemberment Plan. The humdrum vocals against a medium-speed beat make for a very relaxing tune, like a calming wave on a gloomy day at the beach. “It Came Back” is a brilliantly classic alternative rock instrumental with something that reminds of late 90’s early 2000’s rock songs, and it gets me nostalgic. Also, during the second verse there’s a point where you can’t tell if the instrument in the background is a piano or guitar, and it’s just mysteriously satisfying.

“Stuck on Repeat” brings me back to the halcyon indie rock days of Smashing Pumpkins clones complete with the sliding guitars that are dissonant, yet groovy. “Ain’t It Strange” reminds me of Los Campesinos! and the entire catalog of bands that talk about how much they want to leave the town. However, these guys do seem to something else away from their younger counterparts, they manage to make the stories of love, boredom, and homesickness an adult thing that many in my age group feel.

I don’t feel as strongly about the lead single off the album, “Edge of Space” or “With Honors”. They seem more or less like stuff that you’ve heard on Joyce Manor, but without the PUNK angst and apathy. But with everything that’s on this album, it sounds clean. Gorgeously produced, nothing too distorted, as alternative as it can get with the production. The album as a whole has enough rockin’ variety to keep you dancing and to keep you entertained, but never enough to overwhelm or bore you.

Riot Games is the group behind the online multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends, which has more than 2 million players. Filled with colorful, playable characters that have their own unique personalities within this universe, there are five characters that have formed the virtual band Pentakill. Riot decided to release actual music from these characters and have given us, surprisingly, one of the heaviest metal albums of this year, matching even Mastodon‘s Once More ‘Round the Sun.

All of the songs make reference to gameplay elements but not in a cheesy way which was something I was worried about. A lot of tribute albums to video games try their to best to pander and make references basically saying, “Hey look guys! We play video games just like you!” Smite and Ignite doesn’t ever do that, and every single song is taken seriously when the instrumentals are this heavy and the lyrics are like a battle song for an upcoming match. “Lightbringer” and “Deathfire Grasp” are booming with otherworldly riffs and drum blasts and basslines that even sound like Tool. YES. TOOL.

The later songs still keep up the power and intensity even in its instrumentals. “Ohmwrecker” and “The Hex Core” each have their heavy metal essentials, with added sounds and effects that hint at the game itself (to the League players, who’s ult sound is that in “The Hex Core”? Shocking, right?). In addition, none of the songs ever seem like they’re advertising to you, it’s just a metal album for all to enjoy.

The album for never falls flat, but it does become a little cheesy at the end with “The Prophecy”. The virtual guitarist speaks about “The Age of Metal” but it really has nothing to do with the characters or the story of League and it seems like a b-side intro that they just threw in. It is kind of cool to hear Mordekaiser’s voice though. “Thornmail” tells the story of an enchanted armor and it has the feel of epic, storytelling metal but the way the vocals are sung is kind of, again, cheesy. “Orb of Winter” is slightly out of place as an orchestral piece that sounds like Danny Elfman doing the score for Tim Burton’s version of Lord of the Rings.

Final Verdict: This is a very very VERY entertaining surprise. I didn’t expect it to be as heavy or as serious as it was, and with the instrumentations it is even more so. I feel pumped and primed after listening to three tracks and ready to take on the world. The references to the game are everywhere but are never obvious as to what they are and adds to them just being a part of the song, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb when you recognize it. This is a heavy metal album that should be taken seriously on its own because of the production and songwriting, because even for non-players, it’s completely solid and you’d never guess. I’m looking forward to more, but if they don’t make anymore songs this would be enough and honestly, I want to see them tour like Gorillaz or something like it.

Interpol was a band I always stated was a staple of the “My First Indie Rock” song collection. It was the gateway to the more obscure and weird and experimental artists all along the blogosphere. However, the band hasn’t been as synonymous with that as it used to be. Artists like Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, Twenty-One Pilots, and the like are the new staples for a new brand of indie rocker. Interpol seems to be pushed back for the youngbloods and because of the mixed opinion on their last album, people thought that Interpol has lost their edge. Longtime listeners stayed with them but there was that hint of doubt. El Pintor is giving a slow, skeptic hope that they will continue being a indie rock standard.

The lead single, “All The Rage Back Home” does show that these guys aren’t getting too ahead of themselves as they produce this fast-paced, surprising, bursty and thrashing song. The guitars just yelling “yehehehehe” in the background is a subtle production dream, and the return of Paul Banks’ voice, untouched by age is something fantastic to hear. “Anywhere” has a cool indie rock aesthetic too. The drums still punch like on Antics and the synthesizers mixed with the high-pitched guitar give a cool sound, but pushes the vocals to the back, something that I’ve criticized shoegaze albums for. “Same Town, New Story” has this weird hammer-on, pull-off riff that actually does it better than “My Desire”. The reverb and pushed back vocals on this give it a deeper sound, something that I haven’t really heard from Interpol before. “Blue Supreme” takes a softer approach, taking about someone who you desire to be. Although at some points it sounds like a Coldplay track.

Most of the album does have some very good music, despite the biggest departure from bassist Carlos Dengler. The duties have been taken over by frontman Paul Banks, but you can hear the difference in change almost immediately. The intricacies of scale and note changes are almost nonexistent here. If you listen to “Obstacle 1” on Turn On the Bright Lights and “Breaker 1” here, the changes are very noticeable. Also, the bass seemed to bring the most out of the vocals, but Banks seems to be all over the place. At one point, he’ll be singing a faded falsetto on “My Blue Supreme”, and then back to his original voice on “Ancient Ways”. “Tidal Wave” teases us with a synthesizer opening and what seems like the opening notes to “Barricade” and leads into another odd combination of falsetto and whatever the hell Paul Banks is supposed to be singing in. And the final track “Twice As Hard” has some pretty cool production on the vocals, but the slow, spacey, tremolo of the song really takes the cake.

Final Verdict: It’s the Interpol we would have liked to see Carlos Dengler on, but for the first time without him, they sound new. If we take out all of the critical acclaim from their previous albums and judged this solely on its own merit, it’s a decent album with some cool production that didn’t need to be completely streamlined for it to work. There’s enough variety in the album to keep it going and it has enough poppy punch to keep you listening to it for a while. Is it the best? No, not at all, but it’s a start in the right direction. I wanna see Interpol become something more than a has-been band, and this album has proved it to me, and should prove it to other avid listeners. I’m a little skeptical that the youngbloods will take these guys over, but I want to see them influence other bands again.

I was on Tumblr the other day when I saw this post called the “Anatomy of Music”. It listed different genres and it gave the general (and very funny) structures of the songs that are associated with them. Indie music was comprised of banjo, twentysomething problems, faster banjo and it made me think of the state we’re in now of indie rock being grouped as just “the genre that The Lumineers share” and no newcomers look for other bands except what’s played on the radio. That’s where this album can hopefully change all of that because They Want My Soul is perfect for being the new staple in the indie rock savant’s collection.

They Want My Soul starts off with the medium-paced single “Rent I Pay” that takes blues to the next level and instead of talking about the twentysomething problems that make indie rock repetitive, it talks more about problems with insomnia, not finding peace and how everything comes back to you no matter what you do, problems in the now rather than the plight of teenage romantics. We then get into the beautifully slow “Inside Out” which shows a bit of the psychedelic side with minimal guitar, soft synthetic harp and a pushed back “mmm” that rides the whole track with the with the treble-reduced production. “Rainy Taxi” has a bassline that makes you remember why Spoon grooved with simplicity and a drum riff that keeps you feeling badass, like walking into a wedding reception and you have more life than the groom. The single “Do You” still has to be my favorite song off of this release. Everything about is brilliantly paced, the triple Britt Daniels’ voices work off of each other gracefully, the little do do dos and hm mm mms paired with the reverberated flute make a dreamy ending that people will try to replicate.

“Knock Knock Knock” has the dark piano, acoustic guitar, ethereal phasing moans and subtle drum groove (paired with an equally sublte flanger) that slowly reveals a tired friendship. “Outlier” is more a instrumental that has a jazz background akin to that of a heist film, and the title track is a hilarious Randy Newman/Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack sounding song about paranoia that has Daniel shrieking about how card sharks, street preachers, sellers, palm readers, post-sermon socialites, park enchanters in skin tights, educated folk singers and even Jonathan Fisk (from the album Kill the Moonlight) all want his soul. “I Just Don’t Understand”, “Let Me Be Mine” and “New York Kiss” all end the album in different ways, a blues track with enough soul to be a Black Keys track, a traditional indie rock track, and a synthpop track that combines Cut Copy and the traditional sound with glitches and production tricks.

Final Verdict: This is one of the best indie rock albums I’ve heard in a long time and it is the first perfect indie rock album I’ve heard this year. The production tricks are the ones I’ve come to expect from Spoon’s earlier work on Transference while still maintaining an accessible collection of songs that are friendly to all ears. While nothing is as crazy with experimentation as “The Mystery Zone” or “Who Makes Your Money”, They Want My Soul doesn’t need it and its heartfelt soul from Britt Daniels and company is a breath of fresh air in this age of Imagine Dragons hardness and Parachute softness. This’ll be on blast forever at my place.

When I talked about while (1<2)’s first disc (see the review here) as being this perfectly paced venture into a non-traditional deadmau5 album, I meant it. Everything about the first disc brought new light into the way that house albums could be played, and if it was just kept at the first disc it would’ve been more than enough. I’m only saying this because the second disc does not bring the same punch as the first. I’ll explain why in a minute.

When you hear a deadmau5 song, you think of the pumping bass, the kicking hooks, and sometimes the screaming voice of Gerard Way in the background while watching him fight in a giant robot amongst a crowd of thunderous fans… just me? ok. You don’t think of the piano interludes and the “gentle” deadmau5, you think of the “bursting with personality, assaulting” deadmau5. And although the first disc was a huge change of pace for Mr. Zimmerman, he still retained the house tracks throughout and kept that punch like Floyd Mayweather. BUT, when the second disc comes into play, it shouldn’t have to take 8 tracks (SERIOUSLY, 8 TRACKS) to get into the full Tron-like prog-house jam that we’ve come to expect.

The second disc is paced and laid out like a soundtrack to a movie about a DJ who can’t make it like his friends can or something to that effect. I can praise the instrumentals for the use of piano and even acoustic guitar, but it’s not house, it’s not progressive house, it’s not even resembling anything close to what Zimmerman’s put out in recent years. “Acedia”, “Errors in my Bread”, “Mercedes” and “Pets” are the only house-like tracks on this disc, and I say “house-like” because they’re surprisingly underwhelming and dare I say, nice. I don’t follow most house musicians for their “nice” music, I follow so I can be punched in the face and ask “please, may I have another?”

That being said, the piano tracks are beautifully arranged and have a somber tone to them, just like in the first disc. A track that really piqued my interest was “A Moment to Myself” which incorporated little glitches and ambient synths that make it seem like a lost M83 track that’s great for taking a load off from a long day. The remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “Survivalism” was decent too, but it’s not like the How to Destroy Angels’ remix in the first disc. And the final track “Seeya”, has the grooves of Disclosure, but like most of the album, it’s NOT. DEADMAU5. (And more importantly, it took 14 tracks to get to this REALLY GOOD TRACK?).

Anyway, as a whole, the album is a crazy change from > album title goes here <, and it is refreshing to hear a new take on house music. However, the name deadmau5 has a lot of weight in the EDM world and if it was put under another name it would be just a decent album. The instrumentals are nice, but it’s not house. The whole album is nice, but that’s not the style we’ve come to love. There are a few tracks that leave you wanting more, but what you get is not what you wanted. Joel Zimmerman, if you’re gonna make a new album with a new sound, don’t make it musical whiplash next time.