New Music Review: Three For All!!! Grizzly Bear, Intelligence, and Phoenix

So it has been a VERY slow music week (except for Marilyn Manson and Busta Rhymes, both of which I gave a quick listen to and HATED both). As such, I've been listening feverishly to three albums all week. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest, Intelligence Fake Surfers, and Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I also have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get my hands on a copy of the debut album from Crash Kings, and based on previews from myspace, Amazon, and iTunes, would probably garner a 10 from me. As such, on with your Friday Three-For-All.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (9.5/10)

This is by far the best of the three albums that I have been enjoying. From the lead track "Liztomania" to the end track "Armistice" this is the best thing to come from France since....ummm....maybe ever (ok, so Air was a decend band and one of the guys in Phoenix was in a band called Darlin' with the two guys from Daft Punk, whom are also French). The fourth studio album from Phoenix is admittedly the first one I've listened to, but will definitely not be the last. It does get a little lenghty in the middle with the 7:29 Love is Like a Sunset, of which the first nearly six and a half minutes is instrumental. Beyond that, it is as fantastic as fantastic goes. Also, check out "1901" and "Lasso"

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (9/10)

2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) standouts Grizzly Bear unleashed a monster when the released Veckatimest, the third studio album from the Brooklyn, NY quartet. Described by most as an indie, experimental-folk rock by many, their new album shows that they are no stranger to any and all genres and apparently had no clocks or timers in the studio, with the average song checking in on this album at right around four and a half minutes. Each song is quite epic in its own little way, but this album shines as a whole, flowing seamlessly from one track to the next, of which you know I am a sucker for, and any band who pulls this off gets automatic bonus points in scoring with me. Check out the tracks "Dory", "Cheerleader" and "Two Weeks"


Intelligence - Fake Surfers (9/10)

Studio album number four from the lo-fi side project of A-Frames drummer Lars Finberg. I really, really, really enjoyed this album from the aspect of its different un-Seattle-like sound. Lars doesn't do anything really overly fancy, just puts together a fantastic freakin' indie animal capable of both lulling you into a hypnotic trance "Fake Surfers" and making you then get up an dance "St. Bartholemew" until Lars snaps his fingers and you return to your previous state of normality. He also can get a little punk with the fantastically titled "Fuck Eat Skull". This album also flows surprisingly well and made for a pleasant surprise of an album as a whole in what was a slow music week.


Thank the Lord that next week is a busier music week, with the new Dave Matthews Band, 311, and Taking Back Sunday albums scheduled to drop on 6/2. Stay tuned to New Music Tuesday to see my selections for the week!