Album Review: Bob Mould - Silver Age

Bob Mould
Silver Age
Rating: Grrrr

Bob Mould's latest record Silver Age shows him in fine form once again, and putting out his most confident set of tracks since his work with Sugar. Foregoing the somber musings of his early solo output and his more recent forays into electronica, Silver Age is primarily 10 smoking hard edged pop tracks that are a smack down to all that have drawn influence from the master, from elder statesman like Foo Fighters and Green Day, down to new upstarts like No Age, Cloud Nothings, and Japandroids, showing who the real boss is. There is almost no fat on these tracks, getting the point quickly and directly, hooky as hell, as simply full of energy.

From the dark, driving opener "Star Machine,"



blistering title track "Silver Age," and through first single "The Descent,"



the album starts off strongly and rarely falters. Tracks like "Fugue State" and "Briefest Moment" carry a dark, melodious edge to them, that never gets heavy-handed or morose, focusing solely on the hook. The only songs that tend to slow the proceedings down are tracks like the mid-tempo squall of "Steam of Hercules," and bland rocker "Angels Rearrange."

But when Mould turns back to the harder edged, more pulsing tracks, Silver Age really kicks off. Rough and ready "Keep Believing" storms out of the gates, while "Round the City Square" sounds like a punkier, early R.E.M. While the final track "First Time Joy" feels like it wants to take things out on a more subdued note, it builds into an insistent guitar driven attack with subtle keyboard accents and a gorgeously restrained vocal from Mould.

While Silver Age could do with a broader palate at times (too many of the tracks utilize a similar guitar haze), the sheer power of the hooks and the joy in which Mould attacks them is simply too strong for it to matter much. After coming out publicly, writing his memoir, curating the re-release of the Sugar records, Mould is easing into middle age with a new found passion for his music. Let's hope Silver Age is merely the beginning of a new phase in Mould's storied career.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

2011 Videos of the Year

It is finally the end of the year, and I have studiously been compiling my year end lists. Today I will show my top videos of the year, next week will reveal my Top 100 songs of the year, and the week after I will show my Top Albums of the year. Without further ado here are the best videos of the year (in no particular order):



The Weeknd - "The Knowing"

Dystopian future videos seemed to be in vogue this year, and The Weeknd seemed to have the best of them. Fluid visuals complement this standout track from their debut mixtape.



Skrillex - "First of the Year"

Skrillex was everywhere this year and ended things with a spectacular video which starts out completely creepy, but then transforms into something empowering and killer. An almost perfect update to Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" video.



Shabazz Palaces - "Black Up"

This hypnotic, mesmerizing video will haunt you for days.



Canyons - "See Blind Through"

As if emerging from a lost 80s music video cocoon, Canyon's trippy video fits well with the loopy take on 80s house music.



Rihanna - "We Found Love"

One of Rihanna's best tracks gets the Requiem for a Dream treatment, UK rave style.



St. Vincent - "Cruel"

Creepy, funny clip from St. Vincent.



Wild Beasts - "Albatross"

Quirky first single from Wild Beasts' album Smother gets an evocative video treatment.



Alex Clare - "Up All Night"

Crash and burn video that goes perfectly with this track.



Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"

The indie rock "Single Ladies."

\
Austra The Beat & The Pulse from The Glitoris on Vimeo.

Austra - "Beat and the Pulse"

NSFW video that matches this pulsating dance track perfectly.



Is Tropical - "The Greeks"

If any video could be my favorite of the year, it would be this one. Fantastically perverse.



Youth Lagoon - "Montana"

Remember when videos used to be mini-short films? This video really brought it back to me how amazing videos were and could be again.



M83 - "Midnight City"

The real X-Men babies.



Holy Ghost! - "Wait and See"

Fun video with the duo's fathers playing them.



No Age - "Fever Dreaming"

Just wait until the ending of this video. Wait for it. Yes!



Major Lazer - "Original Don"

Major Lazer take a viral video and expand on it. Perfection.



Falty DL - "Gospel of Opal (Ft. Anneka)"

One of my favorite singles of the year gets a mysterious video to accompany it, and it works so well, even up to the bizarre ending.



Real Estate - "It's Real"

Perfect pop songs don't need much. Dogs will do.


The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Fleet Foxes - "The Shrine/An Argument"

I personally don't care for Fleet Foxes music all that much, however, this video is so damn gorgeous. I love the animation as well as the haunting storyline.

Videos of the Week

Another Friday is thankfully upon us. Here are the latest videos that are massaging my brain:



Video for the No Age single "Fever Dreaming," which was one of my top singles of last year. What appears to be a static shot at first grows more and more sinister, until the final shot which is quite shocking.



As most of you can tell, my friends and I are getting excited about our upcoming trip to the Coachella Music Festival. The majority of videos I am putting up for the next few weeks will be from bands playing the festival. Sort of my way of getting pumped up for it. Australian duo Presets, is one of the bands I am looking forward to seeing. This is an amazing song from them, with a surprisingly emotionally compelling video.



Love this song. As Kurt says, it's got the wubz.



Gorgeous reworking of this song from their last album, replacing Alice Adams' ghostly vocals with The Cure's Robert Smith, which gives the song added pathos.



Smooth track from dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man, featuring Benga, Skream, and Artwork.



Gorgeous song from Menomena. I just love the lyrics for this song.



I can't wait to see Rye Rye at Coachella. She looks like her show will be a lot of fun. This is a kick-ass track.



Really fun song and video from these dance-punk heroes.



Another recent find that is also playing Coachella. Based on this video and this song, it looks like it will be a fun set.

Videos of the Week

I'm a bit discombobulated this week owing to the bizarre snow/ice storm Atlanta was subjected to, and my days have gotten completely screwed up. I didn't even realize it was Thursday yesterday and forgot to do a Non-Sequiturs post. Oh well. Such is life. At any rate, I am back on target and am now posting my favorite videos of the week that warmed the cockles of my snowed in heart.



Dom sort of sounds like a more synth heavy Passion Pit with a better lead vocalist. This song is supremely silly, but is ridiculously catchy.



Banging dubstep track from Starkey is paired with a very bizarre video. They match up perfectly.



Trippy video from Eskmo combining equal parts MC Escher, the movie Inception, and Terry Gilliam-like animation.



Hypnotically impressionistic video from The Radio Dept. Fits the mood of the song very well.



1990s one hit wonder, but what a fabulous song. The rest of his output is so bad, it is amazing he was able to put this together.



I'm hoping these guys play Coachella this year, because they know how to put out a blistering live track.



Slinky, jazz/funk tune from Destroyer, with a completely batshit crazy video.

Videos of the Week

This seemed like the longest week ever.  Thank heaven it is almost the weekend.  Here are the videos this weekend that made me holla!



Fun and funky video from Mumdance.  Makes me laugh; but also creeps me out a little. 



Glasser's first cd is really growing on me.  She is like a more accessible Fever Ray, Bat for Lashes, or Zola Jesus.  Trippy video.



Sweet little song, with an accompanying video which condenses the Star Wars triology into 2 minutes using only construction paper.



Really tight new song from Bryan Ferry.  His list of collaborators on the new cd is impressive: his former Roxy Music bandmates, Nile Rogers, Mani, Johnny Greenwood, Scissor Sisters, and Flea.



Was really impressed by his live show; he builds everything with loop pedals.  The cd can border on the twee, but it is still pretty wonderful.



Noise pop from No Age.  Never really cared for them much until this cd.



Although I was not overly impressed by their live show, The National is still a really good band.  This was a video for one of the singles off High Violet.  I still have a man crush on Matt Berninger.



Strange video from How To Dress Well.  The album is really good, but also frustrates me because it could have been brilliant.  It has more to do with some of his production choices than his songwriting.