Opinz: Opinions. About Music. Short and to the point.

Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

Dave Matthews Band is such a niche product that it’s difficult to review any of their work; either you “get it” and love sitting through hours of pointless jamming or you don’t “get it” and are a shallow Lady GaGa fan who can’t appreciate true musicianship…but we’ll give it a shot anyway: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is easily their best and most complete album to date, with radio-friendly hits like “Why I Am” and “Spaceman” playing nice with slow jams like “Lying in the Hands of God” and avoiding the uneven, jariness most albums of this depth might emit…for most casual fans, Big Whisky is a much easier listen than DMB’s past efforts.
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jj – jj n° 2

Hearing the music of the mysterious and suddenly hot artist/group/who knows jj (lower-case) after last week’s abysmal Discovery release strikes an interesting contrast: whoever these/this people/person are, they certainly understand how to properly and ear-catchingly cross musical borders and reappropriate the familiar into entirely unique sounds, as this half-hour collection of tracks serves up deliciously tropical grooves, acoustic strums, audacious samples (”ecstasy” is built atop a sample of “Lollipop”…no, seriously), and serene pop vocals from someone whose gender I still can’t identify – this is shaping up to be one of the most refreshing little records of the year and an almost willfully perfect summer soundtrack.

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Soundtrack

While people generally seem to be forgiving of the faults of the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen due to the large number of shiny robots blowing things up covering up the lack of substance, there is nothing in the soundtrack to cover up for the lack of substance in it, and the only shiny explosions likely to make one forget about the songs meaning nothing, saying nothing, and doing so in a manner completely devoid of creativity would have to come when the computer or CD player used to listen to it is thrown in a bathtub full of water as lukewarm as the music itself.
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Discovery – LP

The premise of Discovery alone is enough to have you worried before you listen – one of the guys from Vampire Weekend and one of the guys from Ra Ra Riot record a synthy R&B pop album in the style of so many modern hitmakers – but the results are even more unlistenable than you’d expect, as these two tumble through every modern pop cliche in the book (handclaps, auto-tune, chopped vocals, repetitive lyrics about shallow romance and clubbing) in a series of poorly and clearly very hastily constructed songs (including an insultingly bad and ill-timed cover of “I Want You Back”) that aren’t even catchy or fun as disposable pop, just silly and obnoxious; LP (groan) is a joke and a disgustingly shameless effort at hipster-baiting.

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Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Dave Longstreth has built his reputation on the appeal of his constantly wandering ambitions, but never before has he so successfully collected those ambitions in one place than on Bitte Orca, somehow fitting together things like catchy guitar riffs, girl group R&B vocals, and sweeping orchestral interludes in a way that feels more cohesive, accessible, and simply wonderful than many musicians could ever hope to pull off when running in so many different directions at once.

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Wilco – Wilco (The Album)

Jeff Tweedy has suggested that this new album’s humorous title is simply an indication that this is the most Wilco-sounding Wilco album yet, and I must agree – it’s all about balance with this collection of songs, brilliantly written and adorned with expert musicianship, and swaying confidently and seamlessly between the band’s experimental tendencies and their rock and country roots, alligning contrasting tracks like the noisy, atmospheric “Bull Black Nova”, the tender Feist duet “You and I”, and the catchy “Wilco (The Song)” into a singular and unique sound that is quite simply…Wilco.

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