No Future?
The Field
Yesterday and Today
(Kompakt)
****
Yesterday and Today picks up where electronic artist Axel Willner’s 2007 breakout From Here We Go Sublime left off: clipped samples, looped rhythms that burrow into your head and refuse to let go, vocal fragments that float in and out of the tracks like wisps of clouds carried away by the wind. Although the album’s title suggests that this is an album unconcerned with looking ahead, Willner suggests otherwise on tracks like “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” a loping, luxurious track that features actual vocals, unaltered. Then there’s the title track, where Battles drummer John Stanier adds forward propulsion and weightier percussion, a nice change from Willner’s usual stock drum patterns. “Sequenced,” the sixth and final track, gives us a glimpse into where Willner might venture in the future; claustrophobic and insistent, the song reveals Willner’s darker, proggier side. It’s not quite a Knife track, but it cuts through a set of speakers all the same. Whether “Sequenced” is a step in a new direction or merely a scenic detour is up for debate. But The Field is well aware that while the past is something that hovers in our subconscious, we can’t forget that the future is looming just ahead.
RENATO PAGNANI

No Salieris Here
Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
(Glassnote)
****1/2
The latest record from France’s Phoenix opens with the year’s most potent one-two punch — seven and a half minutes of impossibly catchy, perfectly constructed, blissful indie rock. “Lisztomania” and “1901” are both soaring pop songs, with interlocking guitars and buzzing synthesizers, anchored to killer backbeats as laser-precise as The Attractions circa “Pump It Up.” Put another way: if Spoon decided to do nothing but rock the party, it might sound something like Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The rest of the album follows suit, with the band in top form and vocalist Thomas Mars using his sleepy tenor to put a nice melodic gloss on the whole package (even if you have no idea what he’s talking about most of the time). There’s even a nice detour into woozy atmospherics with the two-part “Love Like a Sunset.” So like those T-shirts that change colour in sunlight, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is only going to sound punchier and more anthemic as summer rears its 35-degree head.
MICHAEL HINGSTON

Forget Scarlett Johansson!
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh
(Storefront/Red Ink)
***1/2
I became a Mandy Moore convert in 2003 after listening to her album Coverage, a thoroughly delightful, well-curated collection of covers of classic pop songs, including XTC’s “Senses Working Overtime,” Joan Armatrading’s “Drop the Pilot,” and Joe Jackson’s “Breaking Us in Two.” Now, on her new album Amanda Leigh, she’s written a classic pop song of her own: “I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week,” whose effortless melody and witty lyrics even Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields would be proud to claim as his own. It’s probably important to say that Moore co-wrote the song; like every track on Amanda Leigh, she shares credit with Mike Viola, a prolific pop songwriter best known for composing all the “Dewey Cox” songs in the movie Walk Hard. But this disc is no joke: it’s a lovely piece of sunshiny California pop — Carole King by way of Norah Jones — and despite all the sexpot photos in the CD booklet, Moore convincingly sells every last “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her” lyric. Give the album a chance and, as Moore sings on “Merrimack River,” “Don’t say you’re not amazed when you know you are.”
PAUL MATWYCHUK

See You Later, Alligator
Crocodiles
Summer of Hate
(Fat Possum)
**
Do you like Joy Division, Depeche Mode, and The Misfits? Well, listening to all three bands at once would probably be a more rewarding experience than listening to Crocodiles’ Summer of Hate. Not that Crocodiles are bad, really, just uninspired and derivative. It’s hard to get excited about a band that mashes all their influences together this blandly. Opener “I Want to Kill Tonight” sounds like The Misfits, if The Misfits used synths, and were boring. “Here Comes the Sky,” on the other hand, is more of a straight-up ’50s ballad and comes across as more honest than the genre-mashing that overtakes the rest of the album. “Young Drugs” ends the album with a more drawn-out song structure, with videogame keys, drum programming, and guitar ending the album just as boringly as it all began.
MIKE DEANE

Focus Group
Dog Day
Concentration
(Outside/Black Mountain)
****
Dog Day created the best Canadian power pop of the decade in 2007 with the superb, smart, dark, catchy Night Group. But the Dog Day we once knew has performed an about-face, opting for more difficult song structures, less accessible melodies, and a more mature and challenging sound in general. On Concentration, they’re still playing pretty straightforward indie rock, but instead of wearing their hooks on their sleeves, it takes repeated listens for the warm infectiousness of this album to become apparent. “You Won’t See Me on Sunday,” “Happiness,” and “Wait It Out” come close to the debut’s pop sensibilities; most of the remaining tracks are more challenging but still satisfying. Singer Seth Smith still nails his bored and beautiful vocal delivery, and Nancy Urich is still the perfect sweet counterpoint. Casey Spidle proves to still be one of the most tasteful drummers in indie rock and Crystal Thili’s haunting synths still fill out the sound. Maybe Dog Day hasn’t changed that much after all; they’re just giving us more to like.
MIKE DEANE