Review #18: Sondre Lerche

Note: Here's another wonderful review from the lovely Ms. Coulombe! Forthcoming from myself might be a double feature of hip-hop reviews, and maybe a review of last year's Go! Team album, which has been sitting half-finished in oblivion for a while now. Here's Courtney's latest masterwork, further showing that she might have her shite together more than I do. ;)

Sondre Lerche And The Faces Down Quartet-Duper Sessions
(Astralwerks)
8 out of 10

Picture links to Lerche's website

By the time the average person has reached the age of 22, they are graduating from college and just setting out to establish themselves in a career. Luckily for his fans, Sondre Lerche is no average person. By the time he was 19, the seemingly ageless Nordic musician had released his first album, Faces Down, which was followed by the irresistibly catchy 2004 album, Two Way Monologues. Now Lerche is ready to release not one, but two new albums. The first of these is the recently released Duper Sessions, an album sounding as if it takes its name from the childish phrase “super duper”, but in all actuality, it is named for Duper Studios, where Lerche records his addictive material. The album itself has been eagerly awaited by Lerche’s fans for months, and as expected, the wait was well worth it.

Lerche has taken a surprisingly fresh turn this time around. Instead of catchy alt-pop songs, which have been golden for him in the past, Lerche has decided to dabble in the jazz world. With his smooth, melodic, voice and help from the Faces Down Quartet, Lerche was able to create an album of authentic jazz songs; so authentic the average person might think Sondre Lerche is Michael Buble’s strongest rival (even if this was so, Lerche is the better artist because he writes his own music).

The album starts off with the finger-snapping “Everyone’s Rooting For You”. At first it sounds like the kind of song you might here at some cheesy holiday office party, but after a few good listens, the song becomes irresistible. It’s a quintessential picker-upper that would rid anyone of any self-loathing. From there the album settles into the mood of a chic jazz club. Many of the songs to follow, such as “Minor Detail” and “(You Knocked Me) Off My Feet”, are of a slower tempo with a smooth electric guitar part, inspired jazz piano, and light snare mixed with hi-hat percussion. Many of the piano compositions, featured on this album, are inspired by those of Vince Guaraldi, formerly of Peanuts fame. The sweet lyrics of love mixed with a smooth musicality displayed in the mid section of the album provides for a very mellow, melodic feel, which is very relaxing at times and sets a good atmosphere for the album. The atmosphere is so believable that all the listener would have to do is close his eyes and instantly he could imagine being in a low key club with the lights dimmed, candles on the tables, and the suave Mr. Lerche on stage with his hair slicked back, bass player at his side, singing these sweet melodies.

In the midst of these cool jazz tunes is a song that is entirely different from any other song on the album, and resembles some of Lerche’s older pieces. “(I Wanna) Call It Love” is easily one of the best and most infectious songs on the entire album. Oddly enough, it has a very show-tune feel to it; you’d most likely expect to hear it in something like My Fair Lady or Kiss Me Kate, but nevertheless it is an exceptional song. It starts out slowly and adds on little by little, ultimately swelling at its peak when the chorus of “Can we dance/ instead of walking?” kicks in. The lyrics are adorable and are carried out incredibly by Lerche. You can really tell he was pulling out all the stops with this one, just so he could compose a creative way to describe what exactly that amazing feeling of love is. This enchanting song is so persuasive and infectious it makes you want to get up and dance; it’s fun in the form of music and verse! What could be better than that?

Aside from creating melodic jazz and lovey-dovey show tunes, Lerche did something that many people may call risky. Along with ten original compositions, three covers were included in Duper Sessions: Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, Elvis Costello’s “Human Hands”, and Paddy McAloon’s “Nightingales”. The first of these covers, “Night and Day”, may be familiar to some of the more hardcore Sondre Lerche fans, on account of it being on his Don’t Be Shallow EP in a live form. All three of these covers are brilliantly performed, and Lerche was sure to bring something of his own to each of them. The fans and original artists of each song would be pleased with Lerche’s efforts.

Whether you are a die-hard Sondre Lerche fan, a die-hard jazz fan, or are just looking for something new to listen to, it’s hard to go wrong with Duper Sessions. It is jazz to perfection and will make anyone a swinging hipster for an hour or two.

Key Tracks: “(I Wanna) Call It Love”, “Human Hands” “Lulu Vise (Hidden Track)”, “Everyone’s Rooting For You”

- Courtney Coulombe (Useless Opinions contributor)

Review #17: We Are Scientists

We Are Scientists-With Love And Squalor
(Virgin)
7 out of 10

Picture links to W.A.S.' FREAKIN' HILARIOUS website!

We know many of you young people may have liked mall-punk (Good Charlotte, Simple Plan et al.) in middle school. That’s alright. We’re here for you. We hope many of you have found your way out of this dark crevasse in the vast tundra that is music. If you’re still stuck there, however, your first step towards rehabilitation is listening to We Are Scientists.

We Are Scientists, a sharp, witty, and hyperactive pop-punk trio hailing from New York City (like many other suave rock bands do), are the ideal transition from the mainstream into the weirder and wackier brands of rock and roll music. The lyrics are quirky, the tunes are catchy, and the instrumentation is simple and inoffensive.

Their debut album, With Love And Squalor, is a set of earwig pop tunes arranged with the utmost of affability and brevity in mind. In today’s music scene, it’s hard to find a band having more fun with the verse-chorus-verse-guitar solo-chorus format of pop music than in this album.

W.A.S. is at its best when they put as much energy into their songs as they do hamming it up in their music videos. “Inaction”, a slice of snappy contemporary punk rock, uses blaring, fuzzy bass to accentuate the panic in vocalist Keith Murray’s voice. The guitar and bass meld together for the chorus in what becomes a testament to the ferocity of laziness.
The band gets a little less garage-punk and a little more Franz Ferdinand on the album’s opener/lead single “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”. Guitars rotate and whirl as Murray plays the role of either doppelganger, subservient lover, or both. The bulk of the album possesses certain slapstick underneath a guise of conventional pop. “The Scene Is Dead” and “Can’t Lose” are songs about parties that echo Jimmy Eat World’s uptempo stuff, and “The Great Escape” sounds like…you guessed it…an escape that’s pretty darn great. The most contemplative song on the album, the down tempo “Textbook”, is intended to convey irony and similar quasi-emotional things in a more somber tone, but you can still tell the band is struggling to keep a straight face. These overtones by no means make the songs particularly bad, they just dig the band into a hole where it would be quite difficult to tug at any heartstrings anytime soon.
Nonetheless, W.A.S. definitely has the capacity to be a really goofy and fun band. Their biggest hurdle is the fact that it seems the three of them can only play 3 instruments collectively. Until they can broaden their sonic horizons, We Are Scientists will remain the cult favorite built for the masses.

Key Tracks: “Inaction”, “The Scene Is Dead”, “The Great Escape”