The Futureheads - This Is Not the World
May 30th, 2008 | 3:40 pm est |
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The Futureheads made a bold move by releasing This Is Not the World on their own label, Nul Records. However, that might be the boldest thing about it — This Is Not the World often feels like the band’s take on a pop album, full of streamlined, punchy songs that aren’t exactly dumbed-down, but do sound much more straightforward than any of the Futureheads’ earlier music. Trying to keep up with all the harmonies, quick tempo changes, and razor-sharp riffs the band crammed into The Futureheads and News and Tributes was a big part of what made those albums so appealing and rewarding on repeated listens, so This Is Not the World’s simpler approach is a little disappointing.
Mother’s Day has come and gone and we’re well into May, but it’s still not too late to sing the praises of April’s music — especially when the month offered so many good songs. The last time Kim Deal and Frank Black both released great songs during the same month was probably when Trompe Le Monde came out (truly diehard Pixies fans can take the best tracks from Mountain Battles and SVN FNGRS and pretend it’s the comeback album that never materialized). April also saw standout songs from new faces (Fleet Foxes, the New Bloods) and familiar ones (Portishead), and revisited older favorites like the Microphones’ “The Moon,” which still sounds as sweetly searching as when The Glow, Pt.2 was first released. 
Lots of late-2000s indie bands boast archaic and/or exotic influences, but few use them with the energy and creativity that 
The weather in Chicago today is chilly and cloudy, but you’d never know it based on the sunny sounds of the Windy City’s Allá (pronounced “ayê-ya”). The trio’s globally savvy pop embraces not just their Mexican heritage, but immaculate Swedish pop, Brazilian Tropicalia, Krautrock, and Chicago’s post-rock scene. Singer Lupe Martinez sounds alluring no matter what backdrop brothers Jorge and Angel Ledezma put behind her, whether it’s the languid guitars on “Golpes del Sol” or “Un Dia Otra Noche”’s giddy strings and handclaps. Allá spent four years recording self-financed sessions all over the globe, stopping at musical ports of call including Chicago’s Soma Electronic Studios and Sweden’s Tambourine Studios, where Jorge worked with arranger Patrick Bartosch to get the string and horn sounds that have graced the Cardigans’ and Eggstone’s music. 
It only took Be Your Own Pet a year and a half to follow up their debut album with Get Awkward, but during that time the band grew from teenagers to adults, and it shows in their music. Get Awkward is still plenty mischievous, but the mischief is more honed, with a wicked mean streak to boot. Instead of singing about bicycles, vacations, and adventures, Jemina Pearl and crew tackle subjects like boredom and paranoia on “Creepy Crawl” and self-loathing on “The Beast Within,” but they sound pretty excited to be so jaded. The hyperactive venom of Be Your Own Pet’s “Let’s Get Sandy (Big Problem)” gets more focus on “Bitches Leave,” a snotty, snarly punk rant which sounds a little like the Donnas on an especially pissed-off day.
In the three years between 
No matter how much Crystal Castles insist they’re named after She-Ra’s fortress and not the 1983 arcade favorite, thanks to the Atari sound chips in their keyboards, their music evokes vintage video game soundtracks — albeit ones that have been folded, spindled and mutilated almost past recognition. On their self-titled debut, Crystal Castles (a.k.a. Ethan Kath and Alice Glass) hurl 8-bit bleeps, bloops and noise as relentlessly as Space Invaders marching down a screen, turning these sounds into sometimes chaotic, sometimes moody synth-pop with a jagged edge. Though their low-res synths can’t help but sound nostalgic (and song titles like “Air War” and “Reckless” sound like forgotten games), Crystal Castles is fresher, more complex and much less gimmicky than might be expected, especially for those familiar with only the band’s singles. Granted, those singles are still some of Crystal Castles’ definitive tracks: The darkly, violently catchy “Alice Practice” pits Glass’ serrated but melodic shout-singing against rippling, strafing and strobing synth onslaughts, and “Crimewave” gives that sound a brooding groove. 