Every other week The Eagle goes about asking the assistant music directors and DJs at WVAU what they’re currently listening to. Here’s what they’re recommending. Check out WVAU.org to listen.
Sufjan Stevens — The Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty)
Sufjan Stevens, a ‘prophet’ of modern folk, has suddenly embraced drum machines, synths, and…auto tune? “The Age of Adz” (pronounced “Odds”) is a mix of wild electronica and epic orchestration. It’s whirling, disjointed and rambling, but grotesquely lovely. Stevens has stripped away the pretentious lengthy song titles, stories, settings and grand biographies in favor of first-person non-fiction. Lyrically, “Adz” is closest to his album “Seven Swans” — straightforward, honest, and immediate. Themes of depression, religious-zeal, death, and love run throughout. “Sufjan/the panic inside/the murdering ghost/that you cannot ignore,” he sings to himself on “Vesuvias” with full choir, woodwinds, and spiraling synths. He sings with reckless abandon on “I Want to Be Well” with lyrics like “Did I go at it wrong?/Did I go intentionally to destroy me?”
Recommended if you like: Radiohead’s Kid A, Brian Eno, The Dirty Projectors Recommended tracks: 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11 – Emily White
Small Black — New Chain (Jagjaguwar)
Nostalgic vintage synths, samples and loops? Distorted, fuzzy vocals about wishing you could stay wherever you are or go back to wherever you were last summer? Piano melodies that could have been on a Lionel Ritchie album? Simple, 4/4 drum machine beats? Super short running time? A check to all of these! Small Black has made great chill-out music for your chillwave party. Whether or not you should choose to ride that wave is your own business, but bringing you back to a simpler time is Small Black’s business. The recommendations for this may as well say “the concept of chillwave.”
Recommended if you like: Washed Out, Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi Recommended tracks: 3, 6, 8 – Alex Rudolph
Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams – Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp)
Brian Eno’s newest album is split pretty evenly between ambient music (which he invented) and dark, synthesizer and drum machine-driven music (which he perfected). Though he’s spent the last few decades producing middle of the road U2 and James albums, Eno has retained his experimental sensibilities — these songs have movements in the sense that dramatic tone shifts pop up every once in a while and they have structure in the sense that they all have beginnings and ends. There’s an anger to the non-ambient tracks that Eno doesn’t usually express. Everything is faster and more crowded than the work he’s produced in the past, but when the harder-edged songs end, the gorgeous ambient tracks are there to clean the slate.
Recommended if you like: Talking Heads, Flying Lotus, Roxy Music, everything on Warp Recommended tracks: 3, 6, 9 - Alex Rudolph
The Extra Lens — Undercard (Merge)
“I hate this town, and there’s a whole long list of things that I hate. I had to starve myself all week to make way. Cleveland Ohio, 1985.” Does it get any more John Darnielle than that? The singular force behind The Mountain Goats has been writing songs like “Cruiserweights” for eons, elegizing small town failure and toil the way Belle & Sebastian do with shyness and photography. That’s not to say “Undercard” is a rehash of Goats’ material, as Darnielle takes us into more pop-y territory with a less sparse sound and some quality harmonies with frequent collaborator Franklin Bruno. But the straight-up acoustic sound, diary-esque lyrics, and Darnielle’s iconic “heart on sleeve” delivery puts this album firmly into his stylistic canon. And for the countless, rabid Mountain Goats fans out there, that’s really not a bad thing.
Recommended if you like: The Mountain Goats, The Tallest Man on Earth, Neutral Milk Hotel Recommended tracks: 2, 3, 6, 12 – Brad Barbour
Bad Books — Bad Book (Favorite Gentlemen)
Bad Book’s self-titled debut album does not disappoint. As a side project of Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull, this album melds the two groups’ styles perfectly by seamlessly combining the soft folk sound of Kevin Devine with the darker sound of Manchester Orchestra. But never fear, Bad Books isn’t simply a regurgitation of the two artists’ previous work; this album has a distinct sound. It is dark yet delicate, and the vocal combination of Devine’s adolescent-esque voice combined with the strained and rough voice of Hull creates a very interesting medley.
Recommended if you like: Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine, Azure Ray Recommended tracks: 1, 5, 6, 8 – Nick Florko
