Indie and Lo-Fi music reviews

Intricate, fearless, melodic, ambitious, confident, catchy-as-hell, and utterly captivating. I hope his head doesn't get too big! He's f****** brilliant, though. Love all his stuff. Great to see him branching out EVEN FURTHER. What on earth is the next one gonna be like?

By far the most inventive release from Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors. The sounds are primarily composed of a cut-up samples of orchestrations and high-range voice samples. To compare, the vocals used throughout are similar to that of Bjork's last work, Medulla. It produces a very ethereal atmosphere with chanting abound and the mood being set by an abundance of strings and whispy voices. This is where the similarities with Medulla end though and it would be unwise for me to liken this album to that one too much as this album, at its core, has much more substance than the latter in terms of rhythm. The opera-like voice samples along with his own airy voice are cut up along with cowbells, strings, and a whole host of percussion and wind instruments in a somewhat dischordant yet entirely captivating array of heavy beats. It really is something else and needs to be listened to if it is to be done any justice. I emplore you, listen to this album. It will be a refreshing experience. In my opinion it is the most engrossing and creative release of the year thus far and it's going to have a permanent place in my rotation of music. I dare someone to release an album better than this one this year. No really, i do.

It's always a shame when an artist dies before completing work on a new album, especially if it's years in the making. There's always a sense of unfinished business, as cliched as it is, and imperfections that either flaw the album as a mess of embryonic ideas, or make the album a classic, out of grief of an artist's passing. There are a few posthumous releases that are just excellent, though. Elliott Smith's, from a basement on a hill, falls into that category.

With Elliott Smith, who took his own life in October 2003, the stigma of an unfinished product follows his ghost, especially with others completing his songs after he died. In fact, it has been reported that he only actually completed a small amount of songs at the time of his suicide. However, I feel a sense of completion with from a basement on a hill, released a mere 2 days before the first anniversary of Smith's untimely death. The songs play like an extended suicide note, with Elliott Smith longing to "find some beautiful place to get lost," "staying down where no one else can give me grief," and meeting "the only maker you'd wanna meet." Some of the titles are ominous as well, and they express his struggle with addiction and depression. The last line in the first verse of "King's Crossing" state that "I can't prepare for death more than I already have."

I guess Smith's self-inflicted stab wound was inevitable, as FtBH lays out clearer than Jimi Hendrix when he recorded "Angel" one month before his 1970 death. The consolation for Smith's dark farewell verses is that his penchant for Beatlesque pop, and ornate acoustic fingerpicking makie the music intensely beautiful, as well as his use of heavier, fuzzier arrangements on "Coast to Coast" among tohers (or was that posthumous touch-ups by Jon Brion?). The music is a hard paradox to pin down. Take George Harrison's Brainwashed, and Nirvana's In Utero & Joy Division's Closer. Brainwashed was a ce;ebration of life and accepting that the end was near, thanks to an inoperable form of brain cancer, wheereas Closer & In Utero were preludes to the suicides of Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain. Elliott Smith didn't have the abrasive spirit of Cobain or the obvious dysphoria that plagued Curtis, or Harrison's optimism and strong belief in transcendence. Smith did pick up Harrison's subtlety (after all, the Beatles were Smith's reported favorite band) in the fact that his life would soon end, but he also had the dark side of Kurt Cobain & Ian Curtis to end his life himself.

I won't deny that suicide is an act of cowardice, or a last resort if circumstances seem to be way too overbearing, and there can always be a way around it. Yet Smith's lyrics reveal anguish that after listening to this album (extremely difficult to listen to all the way through with 15 songs at about 57 minutes), you can be hopeful that he is in a better place, away from his private hell. Nonetheless, his tremendous gift of writing beautiful, mostly acoustic, songs is sorely missed in the music world.

Elliot Smith's "From a Basement on the Hill," sadly was his last work. This album has a wide range of intimate guitar riffs which pull at the heart strings coupled with sincere graceful lyrics, moody melancholic rock riffs and jaggedy production. I really enjoyed this recording. He did not have final say on the mix, but whoever mixed this record did a fine job. I never got bored of it. It's genious! HIs harmonies like "The Mama's and the Papa's," will withstand the test of time.

Another great album by Elliott Smith, every song is poetic and complements the music around the words perfectly, any album by Elliott is worth picking up and this unfortunatley is now his final album due to his untimely death. He will however be remembered as a talented and emotive songwriter who did not release a bad album and came up with some of the most stunning songs i've heard and from a basement on the hill is definatley a cd worth picking up although not my favourite, figure 8 and xo take that crown.

almost all of these songs are classic pollard rockers except the last song on the cd really blows, otherwise i would give it 4 stars. bob really sounds inspired on some of these melodies. the song the right thing is a great cuz the intro is bob and acoustic guitar only and sounds like you are hearing the song just as it first came out of bob drunken head!! then it kicks in to a full on rock roll song. this guy has a knack for melody and lyrics and also does impressive rock moves on stage live at age 48 (i think he is maybe 49?).

every pollard solo album has been worthwhile. this is telling as his best was his first, not in my airforce. therefore to continue at a high level is not easy. after breaking up guided by voices it could have been tempting to force the issue and "let it all hang out." bob does not do that here. and in spite of its length, the urge to command mr. pollard to exhibit a little self-editing is not present. well, maybe a little. he always wanted to do a double album. we are all the much better for it.

Style-wise, this sounds pretty much like the last two Guided by Voices albums. It's a slow grower, owing to the dense mix of different kinds of songs and the lack of any true standout tracks like "The Best of Jill Hives" or "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud." The biggest problem with the album is the seemingly random arrangement of the tracks; it's hard to get a listening momentum going with so many jarring transitions. I'd recommend this album to Bob fanatics (like they need a recommendation anyway) but it's not the friendliest place for a novice to enter the Pollard/GBV world.