Opinz

Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are: Motion Picture Soundtrack

What’s surprising about the soundtrack for Spike Jonze’ highly anticipated “Where the Wild Things Are” adaptation is just how cohesive it sounds as an album, without the context of the film (one could easily mistake it for a Karen O solo debut): brimming with an undeniably sweet and appropriately child-like energy, sing/shout-along sugar rushes like “All is Love” and “Rumpus” are well tempered by lovely instrumentals and ballads, the delicate “Hidaway” and Karen O’s beautiful rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Worried Shoes” being big highlights.

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Tags: aaron hemphill, atlas sound, bradford cox, dean fertita, deerhunter, jack lawrence, karen o, liars, the dead weather, the raconteurs, yeah yeah yeahs

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Who would have guessed that a band 25 years into an already illustrious career and comfortably ensconced in commercial success and legendary status would take an absolute left turn the way The Flaming Lips do on Embryonic – a double album swimming in boomingly distorted instruments, jam sessions and noise freak outs, stoner philosophizing and minimalist experiments, from rockers like “Convinced of the Hex” and the stomping “Watching the Planets” to unsettlingly eerie tracks like “Evil”, there’s an amazing and satisfying sense of depth and musical experience to be found on Embryonic; thank god, for the first time in many years The Flaming Lips are fucking weird again.

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Tags: embryonic, karen o, mgmt, the flaming lips, yeah yeah yeahs

Various Artists – War Child Presents Heroes

War Child’s newest compilation – benefiting children affected by war – is structured around a premise that legendary artists pick modern day artists to cover their classics: Beck does a rousing, bluesy rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Lily Allen does a soft and ironically sweet cover of The Clash’s “Paper Planes”-sampled “Straight to Hell”,  Hot Chip dance-pops up Joy Division’s “Transmission, and TV on the Radio manages to make the first good cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” that this reviewer has ever heard; despite a few low points, (The Kinks clearly picked The Kooks to cover “Victoria” because of the similar names, and the results are quite boring, and Peaches’ can’t hold a candle to the badassness of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy”) the whole thing paints a more promising portrait of the state of popular music then you’re likely to get from most sources and besides, once again, it’s all for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: adam cohen, beck, blondie, bob dylan, brian wilson, bruce springsteen, compilations, david bowie, duffy, elbow, elvis costello, estelle, franz ferdinand, hot chip, iggy pop, joy division, leonard cohen, lily allen, paul mccartney, peaches, roxy music, rufus wainwright, scissor sisters, stevie wonder, the clash, the hold steady, the kinks, the kooks, the like, the ramones, the stooges, tv on the radio, u2, war child, yeah yeah yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Already an early pick for album cover of the year, It’s Blitz! is also a pretty incredible record – the band manages to move past indie garage punk and into something much more danceable, incorporating some definite late 80s U2 influences while managing to not abandon their signature sound; It’s Blitz! opens with the decidedly not techno (in spite of the first few frantic synth notes) “Zero”, and moves into the dreamy dance-rock of “Heads Will Roll”, but the gem of the disc is the hauntingly gorgeous “Skeletons” – It’s Blitz! is their strongest, most likable album to date.
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Tags: dave sitek, interscope, it's blitz!, karen o, nick launay, polydor, yeah yeah yeahs