Top Ten Albums of 2013 - #6
Frightened Rabbit's Pedestrian Verse
Editor's Note: This is the 5th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2013. The 10th edition is wrapped into the larger year-end post I call "The Ho Media Awards", which will be published just after the new year. Stay tuned!
Like others on the list, Pedestrian Verse -- a surprisingly fantastic album -- was preceded in life by an album so mediocre that it didn't warrant a mention on any past countdown. The clever wit that made The Midnight Organ Fight such a brilliant success is finally back in form and matched with melodies and presentations that make each song stand out from one another. There really isn't a bad song on the whole album...
...except it's all so loud. I'm surprised I haven't read more negative reviews of the album's inability to produce sounds that are both loud and clear. You have "Nitrous Gas" at one end of the spectrum: a haunting song driven by a single electric guitar and a few harmonizing vocal "ohhhhh's" from the other band members; at the other end is the leading single (below) "The Woodpile," distorted all to hell throughout. The rest of the album settles somewhere roughly centered between these two. It's not enough to prevent the album from being listenable, but it never had a chance to crack the top 5 with production like this.
Album Highlights: Holy; The Woodpile; State Hospital; Nitrous Gas
Editor's Note: This is the 5th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2013. The 10th edition is wrapped into the larger year-end post I call "The Ho Media Awards", which will be published just after the new year. Stay tuned!Like others on the list, Pedestrian Verse -- a surprisingly fantastic album -- was preceded in life by an album so mediocre that it didn't warrant a mention on any past countdown. The clever wit that made The Midnight Organ Fight such a brilliant success is finally back in form and matched with melodies and presentations that make each song stand out from one another. There really isn't a bad song on the whole album...
...except it's all so loud. I'm surprised I haven't read more negative reviews of the album's inability to produce sounds that are both loud and clear. You have "Nitrous Gas" at one end of the spectrum: a haunting song driven by a single electric guitar and a few harmonizing vocal "ohhhhh's" from the other band members; at the other end is the leading single (below) "The Woodpile," distorted all to hell throughout. The rest of the album settles somewhere roughly centered between these two. It's not enough to prevent the album from being listenable, but it never had a chance to crack the top 5 with production like this.
Album Highlights: Holy; The Woodpile; State Hospital; Nitrous Gas
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