I'm gonna start with the easiest album I will ever probably attempt to tell anyone about, MGMT's latest self-titled venture. I was super smart and have once again purchased an album based upon previous works which I enjoyed even though the more recent work appears to be getting worse. This is prime example numero uno. After thoroughly enjoying their first album, "Oracular Spectacular", I rushed out to purchase their follow up, "Congratulations", and while wasn't as fond of it as the first, still found some modicum of enjoyment out of it. You can imagine my enjoyment, then, when I heard a new album was coming out. A chance to redeem themselves for a lackluster second effort, I thought. I thought wrong! I will have a hard time describing any of it to you because it forced me to zone out pretty hard and did not capture any part of my attention. I'm not sure if I have ADD or what, but I'm not sure if getting someone to zone out and not realize what they were listening to for close to an hour was what they were going for. I wish I could say I have given it more than one listen, but I haven't, and may not to be honest. Here are some of my favorite songs from the first two albums to make me feel better:
Enough about that, I'm glad I got it out of my system. Now onto something I have actually enjoyed listening to over the last few weeks.
I will start here with the full-length debut from Grouplove titled "Spreading Rumours". This album was released in late September, just weeks before the band would conquer ACL and become one of the darlings of the festival. I was first introduced to their work in the summer of 2012(I had to check my Shazaam to make sure of the time) when one of their tunes, "Colours", off their EP appeared in, you guessed it, a movie trailer. I would love to say I was pleasantly surprised by this album being good, but I wasn't. After listening to the EP pretty regularly and hearing some of their music pop up around the water cooler, I expected nothing less than some really good music and I was not let down and you won't be either. This album is chalk-full of finger tapping, head bobbing goodness with some raucous drumming and wonderful harmonies. I really just love this album. It's worth a listen or two. It's pretty great.
Next up is the completion of Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience. The first disc was released back in the spring and was a very sexy, melodic album full of soul and class. In the follow-up/completion of the journey, JT takes us into the world of what happens before you get to classy and gets - pardon the rhyming that is about to occur, I just can't help myself sometimes - sassy. This album seems focused more in the club scene in which one would be attempting to pick up the lady for whom you would eventually write the love songs. My only real issue with this album is that it wasn't the first part because I feel that it would have flowed better into the other part as opposed to the way they were actually released. It's just partially irritating to listen to an album full of songs for six months that you could equate all are written for his wife, Jessica Beil, and then follow it up with a bunch of really good club songs about hooking up. Going in reverse would have told the tale better in my opinion. Anyway, there are a few gems on this album as well and I can't wait to see the man put on his show in December. Some of my favorites:
I will end today's session with what I think is one of the most enjoyable listens around these days, and that is the young lady from the UK, Lorde, with her full-length debut, "Pure Heroine". Coming off a summer where she captured ears worldwide with her hit "Royals", she keeps the train running with this album. Her voice is mesmerizing, melodies and accompanying beats entrancing, and the whole album begs to be listened to on repeat."Tennis Court" and "Glory and Gore" are my jams. For real check this album out if you haven't already.
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