Review: Disclosure - "Settle"

Basically by rule, pure dance albums are not meant to be listened to in headphones. You're supposed to hear these tracks EQed through a DJ's board and pumped out a stack or three as you scuff soles on a dance floor. And when you hear it that way - with or without some substance help - it's far removed from the headphone sound.

This can make it difficult to gauge how "good" a dance album can be when you take it away from its proper environs. Can you make enough different and interesting beats to make an album that's an enjoyable listen at home, where the flashiest dance move might only be a toe tap?

English duo Disclosure have come pretty close to doing just that on "Settle," a debut that has gone to No. 1 on British charts and peaked at 38 thus far in America. So there's little chance of denying their mass appeal. Given that the closest I usually come to this musical circle is dance rock like Franz Ferdinand or mash-ups with danceable elements like Girl Talk, I'm in new territory, but I had to see what the fuss was about, and if that appeal reached me like it has so many others.

Instead of going sample-heavy, Disclosure opted to stuff their album was guest vocals. Eight of "Settle's" 14 tracks have a credited feature in their titles, and those turn out to be the album's strongest tracks, typically. "Latch," "White Noise," "You & Me" and "Help Me Lose My Mind" are all stand-outs and feature guest vocals from Sam Smith, Aluna Francis of AlunaGeorge, Eliza Doolittle and Hannah Reid of London Grammar, respectively. They also form a set of bookends, sandwiching a midsection of the album that loses most of the momentum the first handful of tracks establish.

"Stimulation" pulses and buzzes, but never really goes anywhere. "Second Chance" has a chopped vocal sampling that doesn't really seem to jive with its mishmash of backing instruments. "Grab Her!" manages to be fun, but suffers from the same affliction as "Stimulation" in that the track never takes you anywhere, and so you're left to float in sound that just becomes background ambiance after a couple minutes.

Pardoning the less-than-stellar midsection, there's quite a bit to like on "Settle." The album mixes it up, but not quite enough to keep some tracks from blending into the background and losing bits of interest. There are a handful of tracks I'll come back to - I enjoy the hell out of "Latch" - but it might take a dance floor and a host of attractive people to get me into the rest.

Grade: 7.0/10

Top 10 Albums of 2013 (So Far)

2012 is a tough musical act to follow, but so far, 2013 is holding its own. Here's a collection of my 10 favorite albums from the year's first half, sorted by artist. And the greatest thing about this list? There are nearly three times as many not listed that could each stake a claim near the top by year's end, and that's before the rest of the year even gets its turn.

Ain't music grand?


Everything Everything - Arc

A quartet of eccentric Englishmen got together and made an album that's got touches of modern British rock in its more pop-leaning hooks (a bit of everything from Arctic Monkeys to Muse). Singer Jonathan Higgs leans on his falsetto to carry the majority of the album's tracks, and once that style and your ears get acquainted, the album becomes a fun listen, especially through the first four songs.

Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

If Everything Everything are a bit delightfully weird, Foxygen are...well, just sort of weird weird. There's definitely charm in there, but with Sam France's vocals reminding you more of Lou Reed than Alex Turner and odd lines like "the aliens and armory backboned her cigar store" sprinkled throughout, "We Are..." may resist your attempts to get familiar. But persistence pays off, especially with the closing flourishes like the ones on "Shuggie" and "Oh Yeah."

Local Natives - Hummingbird

A lot of what made Local Natives' 2009 "Gorilla Manor" so endearing was how much fun everyone involved seemed to be having on it. Tracks like "Sun Hands" and "Camera Talk," filled with joyous shouting and exuberant piano mashing over pounded drums, were immediately winning and captivating. It seems a bit of an odd choice, in that light, for Local Natives to dial things back and refine the more serious side of their music on "Hummingbird," a release just as strong as "Gorilla Manor" but for wholly different reasons. It's emotional and sincere, deprived of exuberance but shimmeringly pretty in its execution, thanks to strong vocal work from Taylor Rice and Kelcey Ayer.

Mikal Cronin - MCII

A collection of immediately accessible, poppy fuzz-rock tracks that sure sound like the exploits of a converted punk songwriter. There's enough to tap your toes to while still feeling you can bob your head and drum on your desk at the same time. Standouts "Weight" and "Shout It Out" will give you your pop fix; "Change" and "See It My Way" will indulge the more rocking side of things; and "Don't Let Me Go" balances things out with a more casual vibe.

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Expectation is a difficult thing to conquer. It had been three years since The National released "High Violet," an excellent album that marked the beginning of the band's emergence into the "big time" and transcendence from indie act to Barclays Center headliner. It makes to look at this year's "Trouble Will Find Me" as one of the year's most hotly anticipated record's in my book, given my penchant for the band and the impossibly long three-year wait. The band draws criticism for being deliberate and being far from immediately accessible, but patience in uncovering each of Matt Berninger's lyrics and the complex construction of each song (even if delivered simply) pays off in spades. As it always has with this band.

Phosphorescent - Muchacho

Sometimes, imperfection is what makes a thing great. In this case, it's Matthew Houck's occasional vocal cracks that make some of the tracks on the wonderful "Muchacho" stick with you. They add emotional flair to "Song For Zula." Heck, even the very first vocal note on "Down To Go" is slightly cracked. Really, it almost sounds off-putting when described that simply, but Houck's tortured and weathered vocal style is what sets "Muchacho" apart and part of what makes it such a memorable record, and that's not even scratching the surface of the song construction and instrumentation, varying from bar-closing piano dirges to the spirit-raising "A Charm / A Blade" and wonderfully manic "The Quotidian Beasts."

Sigur Ros - Kveikur

The typical M.O. for Sigur Ros is to craft sweeping, gorgeously ambiance with their music, a familiar build that ran out of magic on their last release, 2012's "Valtari." Down to a trio from a quartet, Jonsi Birgisson and Co. have made a darker, more ominous album in "Kveikur." That said, the album isn't without its high points either - "Rafstraumur" is the best example - and it's something of a redemption in the face of "Valtari," far more reminiscent of the transcendant "Agaetis Byrjun" than anything more recent.

Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

Crossing over from folk to dancepop isn't a journey you see many artists make. I mean, I sure don't, anyway. But we find ourselves here with sisterly duo Tegan and Sara Quin doing just that, releasing an album of synthy goodness that hails as a noticeable departure from their previous work. It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that something out of the norm for a group seven releases in would sound so polished and confident, but the sisters pull it off with aplomb. Standouts include "Goodbye, Goodbye" and "I'm Not Your Hero."





Torres - Torres

I'm many, many listens deep in this self-made debut from Nashville singer/songwriter Mackenzie Scott and still can't figure out if she's actually 22 or someone well older. The themes and emotion with which she delivers the songs framing those themes belie her age; they make her seem wizened. In truth, given autobiographical songs like "Moon & Back" and "Don't Run Away, Emilie," you have little reason to doubt that weathered wisdom. This is one of the most assured debuts I've listened to in a long time; it's open-hearted and sad and touching and frightening and intimate and personal. Listen to it through headphones and let it envelop you.


Young Galaxy - Ultramarine

It's hard to start an album with three better songs than the trio that introduces "Ultramarine," a four-hit combo that sets the stage for a strong album, even if it peaks a little early. But it's not as if everything turns to sad after "New Summer," far from it. "What We Want," "Out the Gate Backwards," "In Fire" and the rest of the album hold all of their water just fine, thank you very much. "Ultramarine" is a very summery album, meant for the sun.





Don't see your favorite here? It may yet find its way atop the list by year's end. And take heart: there's still a whole half of the year left for things to change.

Review: Queens of the Stone Age - "...Like Clockwork"

Six years of quiet has a way of letting some of the neon glow out of a band. So it's been for Queens of the Stone Age, the musical Megatron composed of members of Kyuss, Soundgarden and Screaming Trees, plus an extended residency from Dave Grohl. QotSA has spent the six years since 2007's "Era Vulgaris" in recycle mode, re-issuing their self-titled debut and "Rated R," and touring them for a couple years in the interim. There was some splintering; lead singer Josh Homme joined Them Crooked Vultures, Dean Fertita joined Jack White's Dead Weather and drummer Joey Castillo left the band.

But, if the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Suede have shown anything thus far in 2013, it's that old dogs still have plenty of potential for new tricks. Whether those tricks turn out to be any good, well, that's far from a sure thing.

One personal knock against QotSA that I've held is I often found a lot of their tracks indistinguishable from the next. There was a sleepiness around their brand of metal that I found hard to full enjoy or become enveloped in. Still, I felt I owed it to my curiosity to investigate "...Like Clockwork," and I can't say I'm emerging on the other side all that disappointed.

There's a bit of the woozy-metal feel to opener "Keep Your Eyes Peeled," but it's mitigated with a few jolts - think of a "kick," a la "Inception" - of guitar and tempo shift that scrape some of the sleep off the tracks eyes. And it stays awake for a few tracks. New drummer Jon Theodore's straightforward percussion keeps "I Sat By the Ocean" moving, while the slow cook of "The Vampyre of Time and Memory" may slow the fuse's burn, but doesn't interrupt it.

Middle tracks "My God is the Sun" and the guest-laden (Elton John??) "Fairweather Friends" are the album's stand-outs, powerful, anthemic (by QotSA standards) tracks that seem to put the band's members at their best throughout. And the antithetical, grimy shuffle of "Smooth Sailing" punctuates the album's strongest stretch. Unfortunately, the 11 1/2 minutes of the album's final two tracks do little to carry on the momentum, with "I Appear Missing" tending to meander and bury an otherwise interesting guitar hook and the title track closer, a brooding piano ballad that leads into a swirl of guitars that tries to climax but never quite gets there, feeling out of place.

Fans of the band's more traditional stylings should leave feeling satisfied. "Clockwork" is a good mix of old and new, but it feels lacking in ambition and seems to fall short of whatever bar it has set, as if it wanted to be more and just couldn't quite reach the summit.

Grade: 7.75/10