I'll Gamble Away My Time

The Flying Club Cup by Beirut

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There are certain bands or musicians you'll always remember. No one forgets the first time they heard music: when a single word, or the twang of a guitar ripped through your previous understanding of "music" and left in its wake something nostalgia may very well transform in your mind as legend. For me, Beirut's The Flying Club Cup may very well be the first album that made me love music all over again. I had spent about two years in a musical dry spell, and when Condon sung "Oh it's been a long time since I've seen you smile" I felt like I had just woken up.

Part of what made the album really reach me was the La Blogotheque videos of each track.

Nantes

A Sunday Smile

Guyamas Sonora

Cliquot

Oookay so I'm lazy...

Backseat

OK Cowboy by Vitalic

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It seems that it's difficult for Pitchfork to talk about Vitalic without using murderous imagery, and they're not wrong. Songs on OK Cowboy have such a fierce intensity that you really do feel like you're about to be murdered.

Three of the tracks, "Poney Part 1", "Poney Part 2" and "La Rock 01" were on his previous release, Poney EP, were incredibly successful, yet they function in the album alongside other songs, rather than stick out like sore thumbs.

One thing that is hard to wrap your mind around is that every single sound on this album is made with synths. Those drums? The guitars? The organs? Yep, all synths. In interviews, it's clear why Arbez chose not to have guest vocals or other instruments; every sound on the album was meticulously and arduously created by Arbez himself. Every sound for the single "My Friend Dario", for example, was created with synths, right down to the electronic female vocals.

Oh, and one more thing. Did you know that Pascal Arbez used to like telling people that he was a male prostitute that could only speak Russian? He had aliases Dima and Hustler Pornstar, and when he went on tour people provided him translators because they thought he couldn't speak English. How much cooler can you get?

We Built Too Many Walls

The Body, The Blood, The Machine by The Thermals

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It's been four years, and most people are familiar with The Body, The Blood, The Machine. It's a hard album to ignore, but somehow I managed. For me, listening to it when it came out, the rough guitars and pounding energy of the album did nothing but grate my ears; I didn't even bother getting into the story. I was just coming out of listening to a plethora of bands from the nineties, and my ears needed a rest. I managed to like "Test Pattern" for its semi-romantic lyrics and moved on to Sigur Ros without looking back.

Today is the first time I've ever sat down and listened to the album. Even if you can't get into the story of "a young couple who must flee a United States governed by fascist faux-Christians", the songs themselves are still worth listening to. As Pitchforks' Amanda Petrusich aptly claims, "these tracks land like bombs".

From the very first track "Here's Your Future", it's evident right away that The Thermals have something to say. The lyrics reference Noah and the Crucifixion, singing "God said here's your future/It's going to rain/So we're packing our things/We're building a boat/Where God will create the new master race/Cause we're so pure/Oh, we're so pure/So here's your future". By the time we get to "An Ear For Baby", we catch a glimpse of this fascist religious state, with the orders "Pull out your best suit...it's time to groom you for judgement" and "The siren's on/Let the water run, leave the lights on...draw the bridges, dig the ditches steep/We're gonna need a new border". The image of the fascist Christian government is perfected in "Power Doesn't Run on Nothing", with the lines "So give us what we're asking for/Cause either way, we're gonna take it/Our power doesn't run on nothing", later transforming the line to "Cause God is with us, and our god's the richest/Our power doesn't run on nothing/It runs on blood/And blood is easy to obtain when you have no shame".

Two of my new personal favorite tracks would be "A Pillar of Salt" and "Returning to the Fold", merely for their sincerely enjoyable pop hooks. The guitars are sharp and self-assured yet untamed. I enjoy "Returning to the Fold" especially for the lyrics "I regret leaving my mind/I forgot I needed it to think/And maybe to keep me alive/Can't believe I got so far with a head so empty".

The album lasts just over 35 minutes, making it short enough to not be repetitive, and keep each song fresh and uncrowded. Personally the album's first six tracks are the strongest, though "Power Doesn't Run on Nothing" is a pretty solid track. Musically, The Body, The Blood, The Machine isn't just a collection of quotable lyrics. Every song is just as much fun to listen to as it is to figure out the meaning behind it.