Arts & Entertainment October 10th 2012 - Over the Edge ALBUM REVIEWS JORDAN TUCKER ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR MOTHER MOTHER, THE STICKS OND UNBWN \o = 3] Ss si ss ss ss ss Ss WO CONDON BWN | CO WNINNNNNNNDN N CSCO ON DU BWN S| © Mother Mother Grizzly Bear The xx Wax Mannequin Rah Rah David Byrne & St. Vincent English Words Amanda Palmer And The Grand Theft Orchestra Chilly Gonzales Milo Greene Cat Power The Sheepdogs Pet Shop Boys Nu Sensae Chap One Erin Costelo Ssion Lou Wreath Efterklang The Antlers Roche Limit Husky Shad Ciseaux JEFF the Brotherhood Kelly Hogan Stars Fiona Apple MAK Bernard Adamus EU 88.7im The past few years have seen Mother Mother go from being a quirky folk outfit to a sleek electric pop set to...what exactly? While listening to their latest effort, The Sticks, one gets the impression that the band members aren't quite sure either, but knew that whatever it was, they weren't going to make it easy for the listener to figure out. The songs range from hopeful, straining pop (“Let's Fall in Love”) to dark (“Happy”) to melancholy, anxious and haunting (the title track). Eureka, their third album, was the musical personification of that over-energized kid who talks too much in class but is so smart you can't hate him. The Sticks is an even smarter kid who barely has to say a word to make the professor steal their comment for a paper. The Sticks is wise, moody, and scribbling in the margins of your journal. The well-produced album flickers across genres, while remaining a quintessential Mother Mother release. The lyrics are This fearsome English trio has mellowed out, it would seem. The first few tracks of this new al- bum surprised me; | had grown accustomed to the screeching gothic electric sound that defined the early XX tracks. The vibe of this album is more like ocean waves. Gentle keyboards pulse and pull, lull- ing the listener in and out of songs that often seem to be about some sort of breakup. The sparse drums, keyboards and an echoing bass guitar create a focus on melody and rhythm that is often lost in other more instrument-heavy bands. While their previous self-titled album had a space- timey feel that delivered the ephemeral joy of the wonders, outrage and confusion of young love, Top 50 The Sticks Shields Coexist No Safe Home The Poet's Dead Love This Giant Red Potion Theatre Is Evil Solo Piano II Milo Greene Sun The Sheepdogs Elysium Sundowning Strange Frequencies We Can Get Over Bent Exploding Diagram Piramida Together Sky Parlor Forever So Melancholy and The Infinite Shadness Ciseaux Hypnotic Nights | Like to Keep Myself in Pain The North The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw... MAK No. 2 sometimes mundane, with “Let's Fall In Love” being a prime example: “Theres agame in the world, alittle bit of cat and mouse With the boys and the girls, and if! had to ante up Id bet on the birds, Cause they don't have to get caught up With the boys and the girls and a little game of cat and mouse” However, it's the emotions between the lyrics that contribute to an understanding and perhaps an overall concept for the album. The track “Happy” is one of the strongest on the album, mainly because it pairs the painstaking description on the minutiae of everyday acts with the placid contemplation of drug addiction and personal philosophy. Because of this bleak and bare honesty, this album becomes Coexist is decidedly not about that. This album is mournful. This aloum takes all of the love and spe- cial sweet and sour sauce of their first album and punches it in its stupid, euphoric face. As usual, Romy Madly Croft and Oliver Sim share brood- ing vocals, using the interplay between his deep, scratchy tones and her sweet staccatos to further emphasize their focus on the light and dark in re- lationships. Often the two sing a sort of call and answer between imaginary former lovers, making arguments about mundane matters seem poignant and wrenching. XX was an album more focused on the light in the dark: while it was certainly moody, it had undertones of sex and gothic love that were Last Gang Warp Young Turks Zunior Hidden Pony 4AD Self-Released Self-Released Arts & Crafts Chop Shop Matador Atlantic Astralwerks Suicide Squeeze Self-Released Self-Released Dovecote Self-Released 4AD Frenchkiss Self-Released Sub Pop Self-Released Self-Released Warner (WEA) Anti- KS! ; e Epic Self-Released Grosse Boite suddenly more complex. Because of the uncertainty the band presents to the listener, the musicfeels much more full-bodied. If Mother Mother was a character in a television series, The Sticks is the episode where they go from the guy with the glasses who banters with the leads to the man with deep personal problems. This is the episode where the guy in the glasses kills someone because of a screwed up childhood. This is my favourite episode so far, needless to say. Overall, The Sticks is a hectic, confused album at face value with much more ordered and honest undertones. Dissonant chords come together behind happy melodies to suggest a great tumult than first represented. While The Sticks may be a mess stylistically, it is organized chaos. It is the work of a band with more experience that isn't afraid to get messy this time. | liked this album. essentially fairly light as subject matter. Coexist is more brooding. It's sorrowful. It has regrets and speaks of mistakes. While Coexist hasn't really strayed too far from the traditional XX formula, the feel is different, and as any mopey fan of the XX can tell you, the feel is what you're there for. | heartily recommend this album to anyone who has had, or is currently having, their heart crushed in with the force of a billion accelerating fiery comets. | can't promise that it will make you feel better, but it might make you feel somewhat less alone. COMICS by Jeff Hollett ATO “Oh no you're not going to marry him, Missy! Just look at him. He’s a bottom feeder id !