Father You See Queen (47): Trip-hop. The vocals are clean and sweet, softly complimenting the gritty industrial backgrounds. I also like how they go from the sharply minor Teratoma to the major-key We Give and Give and You Take and Take and Take. What stands out most to me [the vocals are beautiful, but with the quality and variety of music in this style available today brilliant vocals have become the standard rather than the exception] is the arrangement of the rhythms. They serve as the skin of the music rather than the backbone giving Father You See Queen its distinctly viscous and amorphous style. I was highly anticipating this release and I’m extremely pleased with it. Edmund was my favorite track and a great close to an amazing record.

Jack White (Blunderbuss): Jack White is a music lover’s songwriter and likely one of the greatest listeners of all time. He’s put together the most diverse and timeless rock albums in recent history.  People who are bored by this album should seriously consider whether or not their addiction to innovation is clouding their view of the landscape. If you are and you do and your honest answer is “no” you probably have very specific interests when it comes to music and Jack White just doesn’t fit them. Or I’m completely off base with this entirely assumption. Let me know what you think. My favorite tracks were Sixteen Saltines, Blunderbuss and Take Me With You When You Go.

Moonface (With Sinai: Heartbreaking Bravery): First two tracks give me a “grand like Bowie” impression, large rock songs with strong vibrato vocals out front. Very much glam-pop inspired. The arrangements are extremely ambitious but his voice is commanding enough to carry them. “Big” sound isn’t usually my thing (I was last on the Arcade Fire bandwagon) but I was intrigued. Shitty City runs half the song before its first chord change and 10,000 Scorpions serves as a two minute intro to the five minute song that follows. In today’s indie music culture genre-tweaking is a minimal expectation which makes toying with formats and arrangements that much more important. I added this to my favorite albums list because it was highly ambitious with the craft and musicality to deliver. “Headed for the Door” was the only track I found to be too weighty.

Torche (Harmonicraft): Some of the licks on this album are what I wish Jane’s Addiction and Smashing Pumpkins were doing today. They exhibit very thick guitar sound with large rhythms that mostly hang in the mid-tempo range when they’re not thrashing at full speed. They also have noticeable hints of arena rock and prog rock, which may deter some. But if my first sentence intrigues you in the least, check them out. I added this album to my favorites, not just because they aren’t afraid to aggressively pursue obvious influences from the ‘90s, but that they do a good job of blending their influences into something may not be new but sounds dynamic and refined. They’re too heavy to gain wide appeal and not versatile enough as songwriters to achieve wide acclaim but they have an honest sound with enough power and finesse to stand out in today’s rock landscape.

The Sights (Hello to Everybody): throwback rock mixed with Beatles-style pop. They have good energy but out of the gate they throw all the tricks I’d expect from a fun-loving classic rock band. [henceforth when I use “classic rock” I’m referring to new bands trying to recapture that “classic rock” sound.] Elements of country, honky tonk and soul are thrown in for good measure. It creates a good mixture, but not very homogenous. The character of the record never quite comes together for me and none of the songs stand out. This album would be a good pickup for people who want to spice up a playlist with some of the elements (of honky tonk, Americana, country and classic rock) by adding one album. Great song-writing, but from my viewpoint their style is entirely throwback, which isn’t what I’m looking for.

The Dandy Warhols (This Machine):  According to Wikipedia this is their best work since Welcome to the Monkey House (which I loved) but it doesn’t match the energy. It represents the same laid-back cool swagger that made them famous but it’s more opiate. It lacks the fun and whimsy that drew me into their more well received work. Fans will most likely appreciate a respectable (if incomplete) return to form whereas introducees will be better served by 13 Tales and Monkey House. I did particularly enjoy their take on 16 Tons, one of my favorite songs.

Menzingers (On The Impossible Past): Pop-punk. It’s hard for me to connect to this album and one of the biggest things that stands out is that they never drop into a minor key until track 8. As a result there’s really no mood change, and in my opinion no dynamic*. What makes this better than other pop-punk albums is that it avoids the devices that tight-but-not-great power pop bands like to recycle. I can’t get into this style. But if you love pop-punk albums this is apparently a very good one.

*I can listen to a whole album in minor, but not in major. That’s my bias. But I feel that being able to transition between major and minor is a key component to bringing depth to a track or an album. The track that is minor (Nice Things) also incorporates some of the pitfalls they had there-to-fore avoided. (Compare the chord progression with More Or Less by Screaming Trees). The best part of the song is the last of minute of it, when they transition from minor back to major and switch to a more effective rhythm for a long outro that extends the song with a separate section.

Mutables: Instrumental glitch-pop. The formula is pretty straightforward: mid-tempo rhythm with strong walking bass supporting bubbly staccato major key synth leads. The tempo rarely deviates and some may find it too predictable but it serves to hold a solid groove throughout. I’m impressed with how the guitar and keys are arranged together throughout the record. Great hooks. The tracks stand apart and none of them disappoint. Light, fun, very well balanced instrumental electronica.

CITY: Minneapolis OTHER TAGS: electronic, ambient, pop FAVORITE SONG: Broken Toy 

Mother of Fire (Feral Children): Very similar to Brute Heart, except with violin instead of viola, thicker distortion and feedback, no piano and fewer harmonies. The wailing feedback and persistently dark mood (very minor) appeals to the TOOL fan in me (which is inordinately substantial). Unfortunately it also invokes comparisons that diminish the impact of the music. It broods too heavily for my tastes.  Siouxsie and the Banshee fans looking for something noisier and darker should definitely check this out.

CITY: Minneapolis OTHER TAGS: experimental, psyche, ritual swamp trance, violin FAVORITE SONG: none selected

Luke Redfield (Tusken Takk): Folk Americana. This album features quite the supporting cast of some of the best musicians Minnesota has to offer (Dosh, Ylvisaker, Bonar, JT Bates, Pisano to name a few). Redfield writes great songs but he just does not have the vocals to compete with elite MN singer-songwriters like Haley Bonar, Jeremy Messersmith or Chris Koza. He has a much stronger western influence, which suits me less so but may suit you more so.

CITY: Minneapolis OTHER TAGS: folk, alt-country, indie, rock FAVORITE SONG: Cowboy Song

120 Days (II): 80’s style electropop crossed with trance. They use lead vocals very sparsely, include elements of industrial and ambient. Serious electronica fans will like it for its attention to various genres and casual electronica fans will like it because it serves as a good fun overview. Falling into the latter category I added this to my favorite albums list. What intrigues me most is their use of vocals as a supporting instrument, bucking the conventional “yea” or “nay” decision most bands make as an up or down vote.

Trampled By Turtles (Stars and Satellites): Alt-bluegrass, Americana. I don’t think that anything on the new album stands out as much as Wait So Long, perhaps the most popular MN song in the history of The Current. But no one can deny how amazing their chemistry has become. No one out there can put together music that is that tight and precise yet feels so relaxed and intimate. They play some of the most difficult and complex music you’ll hear and make it sound effortless. However, bluegrass (and Americana in general) is a genre that I enjoy from time to time but it’s not something I go back too often enough to put on a favorites list.

Of Monsters and Men: They sound almost entirely inspired by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic  Zeros, except slightly less fun, more dramatic. At the same time they are more pop-focused. That they can be more poppy and less fun leads them out of my preferred tastes.

Spiritualized (Sweet Heart Sweet Light): Grandiose, sweeping, brit-pop songs. They seem to be coming from the same grain of Damon Albarn and Eels. If Spiritualized was responding to this style it would seem affected, but they were contemporaries and their experience and chemistry is on display on this album which is very tight, polished and well composed. I did not include it on my list of favorite albums. It sounds great but for as grandiose as it was there didn’t seem to be a cohesive mood to it. At the end of the day it just doesn’t have the hooks to hold me.

Lotus Plaza (Action at a Distance): Sounds like Deerhunter with lesser vocals. Has a Jesus and Mary Chain flow to it with the same heavy reverb shoegazing. Upon looking up the band* I noted that Lotus Plaza is the solo project of the guitarist from Deerhunter, which explains the sound and excuses the similarities. Pundt has a good voice but he’s no Bradford Cox. It’s good for Deerhunter fans or shoegaze aficionados that are looking for new material but I don’t see this branching out towards new audiences. Desire Lines is one of favorite songs and nothing on Action at a Distance measures up.

Young Prisms (In Between): General shoegaze, effective dream-pop. I picked it out of Pitchfork reviews thinking they must miss a few bands on their “best new music” reviews, but I agree with their 6.0 review. It’s simple and effective, which I like, but it’s not that far removed from bands I listened to ten years ago, like Tsunami. They draw a lot of comparisons to Mazzy Star, but their vocals don’t compare (and Hope Sandoval made that band). The vocals come across either as wispy and flowing or disaffected and unemotive. They lack a gripping dynamic. But they do tilt heavy to the dream side of dream-pop, so if you feel that shoegaze these days is getting way too poppy and not dreamy enough, this would be a band to check out.

*I try to listen to half of the album before looking up the band’s bio and the album’s history.