Speak Through The White Noise

Speak Thorough The White Noise, the second album from one man band, Ilan Rubin emerged several months ago but I thought now was prime time time to do a short review. The album is nothing more than massive and so often I come out of listening to it and just have to think to myself, how did one person make all of this music.
Rubin, who I first learned of when he joined Nine Inch Nails as their touring drummer, is a multi-instrumentalist and a prodigy on the drums (He won the guitar center national drum off when was only 8 or 9.) He started as a touring drummer when he was 13 and has been on the road ever since, then again, he's only 23 years old! The solid wall of drums is a wonderful motif that exists through the whole album. As a self taught, multi-instrumenatlist, he is incredibly skilled with each instrument. From classical piano to guitar to synthesizer, Rubin never fails to amaze.

The album features an interesting mix of hard hitting rock songs such as State of Possession as well as tender ballads with massive Queen-esque outros i.e. The Skeptic. The heavier electronic influence is quite visible on this album more than Coup (his first release). The whole album is a work to be admired and after many months of listening, I don't see it getting old anytime soon.
Stand-Out Tracks:
Clairaudience
Enjoy The Bitterness
State Of Possession
All Laid Out To Rest

Strange Mercy

St. Vincent. The name is deceiving, not a gospel group, no. A one woman musical expedition led by Annie Clark. Strange Mercy, Clark's third album as St. Vincent is lush. Lush in so many ways, lush sounding lush lyrics, lush instruments. Because of this saturation, the parts of each song where it is all stripped away is oh so refreshing. It's just full of so many things that I love. Her guitar is a magic wand that she uses to paint walls of fuzz and distortion. At one point you could be listening to a tender ballad before it turns into a driving, thick, wall of sound chorus.
Its this unpredictably that has you on your toes throughout all of Strange Mercy. A lyric like "I've seen miracles with no clothes on" seems out of place before you hear the chorus "I don't want to be a cheerleader no more" Sprawling orchestral arrangements sit right beside funky guitar synth solos with no seams between the two. Its quite amazing this sound that comes out of this one woman and if you have ever seen them live, Clark plays a mean guitar that can compliment and clash with her voice in just the perfect way.

Synthesizers tasteful flutter in and out of a song like Champagne Year and take center stage in Surgeon. But all falls back behind Clark's no nonsense voice.
Stand-Out Tracks:
Surgeon
Cruel
Chloe In The Afternoon
Champagne Year

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

From the word "go," Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, the latest release from M83, bursts in with a triumphant anthem. The song is dense with modulating synths and M83's classic soft spoken word intro. The song is the overture to the massive work that is Hurry Up, a 22 song concept album. While it is the first M83 album that I have listened to in full, I feel that so much can be learned about the band from this latest release.
M83 is a musical group based around french musician Anthony Gonzalez, who plays almost every instrument on the record. M83 is and always has been defined by their thick and thoughtful music but Hurry Up turns to a more pop sensibility. It retains the well known M83 noise in some interstitial tracks but the big hits on the album come from the, as i once heard it put, unapologetic 80s sensibilities within the tracks. This vintage nostalgia comes mostly from the drums and bass which at times transport the listener back to the times of Duran Duran and Aha.
To zoom in for a moment, I'd like to discuss my personal favorite track off of the record. The song "Steve McQueen" starts off with a distorted vocal melody behind some classic 80s drum machine. The song descends into a synth arpeggio buildup with so much tension behind it that by the time that the drums fill and go into the unabashed anthem singalong, you can barely stop yourself from getting up and dancing about like a crazy person. The verses are short and not very prominent but they do provide time to take a breath before the next chorus. Every time I listen to this song it gets better and better, a feeling I have about the album as a whole.

Stand-Out Tracks:
Steve McQueen
Intro
Midnight City
Reunion