Issue #65 Album Reviews

Reviews of the latest from Marina and the Diamonds, Stone Temple Pilots, Tame Impala and Teenage Fanclub…

Marina and the Diamonds
The Family Jewels
Atlantic
Half-Greek,
half-Welsh Marina Diamandis grew up fascinated with America—its glamour, its excess and its many iterations of Madonna. This month, her debut album The Family Jewels—under the name Marina and The Diamonds (the “Diamonds” are her ever-multiplying fans)—hits North American shelves, and it offers something so few pop stars on this side of the Atlantic can: a fun, funny and genuinely un-ironic pop album. She approached the genre with the same dedicated aplomb Kate Bush once did, crooning “Cuckoo!” in the buoyant “Mowgli’s Road” or belting, “Guess what? I am not a robot!” in (guess what?) “I Am Not a Robot,” her affecting debut single. And just as Kate Bush once said she wanted her music to push listeners against the wall, writer-singer-pianist Marina confronts you with her lyrics. “Not going to bend over and curtsy for you,” she croons in “Girls.” “I feel like I’m the worst, so I always act like I’m the best,” she admits unflinchingly in “Oh No!” In every catchy, danceable song she lays her cards on the table—and every time, it’s a diamond flush.
-Nojan Aminosharei

Stone Temple Pilots
s/t
Atlantic
Remember the “Big Bang Baby” video? The videography was straight-up The Knack. Dean DeLeo dressed in Fifties lounge lizard gear, gripping a late-Sixties pink paisley Tele bass; his brother Robert, hiding behind scraggly hair, had the Keef moves down and got a good honk out of his lipstick-driven Danelectro; Eric Kretz was behind a three-piece when most drummers were behind a huge trap kit; and Weiland had the quintessential greasy bleached hair with roots grown out and a chin strap; the song itself a glam throwback with a direct lift of the Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash.” I was 14 at the time and didn’t care they were pastiche artists; so is Beck, though he looked to Tropicalia and G-Funk rather than FM radio. The brothers DeLeo however know how to get the best out of the 10 strings between ‘em, and Weiland sounds better in the role of pseudo-psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll singer than leather-clad rawk frontman. Nostalgia can be fun, but what you consume as a kid is ultimately just one of many means to an end.
-Adam Sabla

Tame Impala
Innerspeaker
Modular
Australian four piece Tame Impala’s debut LP Innerspeaker is a razor sharp psychedelic rock album. And although the music is psychedelic it remains accessible and upbeat thanks to remarkably catchy fuzzed-out hooks and a driving lazer-guided rhythm section. Reportedly recorded in the Australian desert, and mixed by Flaming Lips associate Dave Fridmann in upstate New York, all the elements of Innerspeaker have an even, crisp sound while each instrument drifts in and out perfectly matching the tone of one another. “Why Wont You Make Up Your Mind” and “Alter Ego” serve nicely as driving psych-pop singles, while the most impressive moment of the album is when “Runway Houses City Clouds” dissolves into a shredding synth coda. Within four days of receiving Innerspeaker I had listened to the whole album 57 times, according to the play count on my just-melted-down iPod (unrelated). I sincerely hope to hear everyone playing these sun-soaked psych jams at the indie rock section of the beach all summer.
-Tyler Fedchuk

Teenage Fanclub
Shadows
Merge
If you know anything about pop music, then you know (and love) Teenage Fanclub. In fact, we can all just admit that their 1992 album Bandwagonesque is a masterpiece, exemplifying the Scottish foursome as a sort of medium, channeling popular song greats through their brilliant melodies, harmonies, long hair and grungy vibes. However, it’s also safe to say they peaked in the Nineties, along with many other bands with this sound, so you might be a bit reluctant to pop in their latest disc. The first track, “When I Still Have Thee” begins with a pleasant two-part harmony, singing the line “will I still have much/when I still have thee?” which at first makes me cringe, but as it progresses I realize, shit, this is charming. This happens again with track two, three, four and right up to the end. The album is a nostalgic hug from the Sixties, via the Nineties, from a couple of Scots that seem to breathe melody and harmony from every pore of their being.
-Louise Burns