Deerhunter: Cryptograms

8.5/10    Must Hear

Ah, so we reach the point of noise drones indebted to a shoegazery of My Bloody Valentine, rather than the sharp pains of Sonic Youth's feedback.  The main difference of course is that this packs a hazy beauty that suits Deer Hunter's psych pop ambitions so much better.  Of course we don't immediately get a true pop song, rather remnants flowing through dense gorgeous feedback loops.  Its like a memory in that effect, producing more of the feeling of the essence of being in the situation than the semantics of it.  As the albums goes on the pinpoints of what makes us feel that emotion becomes clear, but a haze still remains and often elevates that feeling.  Everything is instantly recognizable, the drones feel like shoegaze of the nineties and the songs immediately feel like dreamy psych pop of the past, except memories have crossed causing a beautiful coalescence of ideas.

Beach House: Depression Cherry

8.5/10    Must Hear

Beach House's music has always been a towering figure to me in music.  I came to them by the time they were chasing the biggest sound they could get, and while I always had admiration for being so impeccably crafted and huge it was exactly that which stood in the way of a possibility of loving them deeply.  It was dream pop that I could not fade into.  Depression Cherry marks a step back from their huge blown out song, and allows more space for the entrance I wanted.  "and the unknown will surround you" Captures the ease with which Levitation slips me into the world through its hypnotic organs.  Then a distorted guitar unlike and I've heard from beach house tears over a loop that slowly fades to the backgrounds.  Space Song close out the strongest three song stretch of their career with a guitar that feels like a neon string winding through the cosmos rather than the grinding flare of Sparks.  Depression Cherry's spacey elegance gives room for the genius of these simple ideas to flourish and take hold of your mind almost in the way you fall asleep.

The Replacements: Tim

8.2    Must Hear

There act cleaned up a little bit too much here, taking away the transcendent sloppiness that allowed their true masterpiece Let it Be stay grounded and so humanly relatable.  Westerberg still comes off like a man who can't completely get it together, he'll always be shambling, but it is very much tighten up.  That of course works for the record in that theres no fluff that ran so rampant on Let it Be (it work for that album, nut it be a tired gimmick the second time around).  A growth was necessary, no one can give of a true vibe of being a slacker forever without falling apart, but I'll still mourn for the Replacements of past.  Still though we got Bastards of Young off this.  Westerberg already showed his capabilities as the voice of a generation, but here he makes his most conscious effort at a grand statement.  That really sums up the album, its the first where you can really tell their trying, before it come off with the ease of Pavements first three.  Here Comes A Regular Is the ballad of the album, it take on a angelic reverb production thats strikingly grandiose and ultimate numbing compared to the sparser production of the previous albums Androgynous which works better with its sparseness.  Trying isn't bad, Replacements worked their asses of on all their albums I'm sure, but when genius filters in more organically its more potent.  This reads very negatively don't get me wrong its a fantastic album its just hard to put out of mind what came before this.