Hush - Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu
Hush
2009
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So I've been going through a big "shoegaze phase" lately. A lot of what I've been listening to are recommendations given to me by others (A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Sweet Trip, The Depreciation Guild) and others are bands I heard a while ago, but for some reason didn't make a large move into until now. Asobi Seksu would be one of those bands. I heard "Thursday" again last month and remembered the pure magic of that song. Since then I've been hooked.

I don't remember Hush making it onto very many lists last year. In fact, I hadn't even heard about the album until the end of December (I could just be really oblivious though). I think people tend to overlook it, because Citrus was considered such a masterpiece. It's a shame though, since Hush is a fairly decent album. I won't spend too much time making comparisons between the two, but I think a few are necessary.

I haven't listened to Citrus as much as Hush, but I can tell that the latter took much more of a pop-ier direction. Citrus is straightforward rockin' shoegaze. Hush is borderline shoegaze, leaning more towards some creative sounding dream pop.

Hush doesn't really have a "Thursday" on it. That song is the obvious climax of Citrus, because it's simply captivating and addictive. It's like one of those fuzzy dreams where you're running and then leap into the sky and find that you can fly. And everyone loves those, right? There are little highlights on Hush; my personal favourites are "Familiar Light", "Sing Tomorrow's Praise", and "Glacially", but nothing that stands out that much. And this is just because the album as a whole is more laid back than Citrus.

Sometimes I feel like the track order wasn't thought out very well. It opens kind of confused with "Layers", and ends with one of the more upbeat and outspoken tracks, "Me & Mary", followed by the slow, but teasing "Blind Little Rain". It makes it kind of different from Citrus though. I feel like that album sort of runs itself down a bit.

The other songs are scattered in between, not completely nonsensically, but not in a particular order either. "Transparence" always catches me off guard. And "Risky and Pretty" following it? I mean it's a cool song, but I don't even know how it got there. I'm guessing it doesn't either.

Some individual songs on sound rather polished, like "Glacially" and "Sing Tomorrow's Praise", but the album as a whole doesn't seem absolutely complete. Yuki's vocals help to reach climaxes and despite her voice being so fragile and beautiful, the album hits some dull, undeveloped points that could have been better. The chorus of "Gliss" is a weird contrast from the eerie whisperings of its beginning. "Meh No Mae", one of the few times on Hush that we hear Yuki sing in Japanese, uses that same overused sound and adds nothing to the album. Each song takes on a similar structure, and a lot of them try to end the same way (bloop bloop bloop dee bloop bloop bloop... )

If you try not to read it too deeply, it doesn't really come off this way. I think I've been unnecessarily over-criticizing a bit, but that's the only way I've been able squeeze everything out of it. But maybe that's not how this album works. Maybe it's just shy. Maybe it doesn't want to tell me everything. Because really, a lot of the melodies on here are downright sweet, nice-sounding, and overall satisfying. And if you're listening for pleasure that's all that matters, right?

Rating: 7.2/10

Jónsi: radio debuts and live tracks

Last December, Jónsi of Sigur Ros released the song "Boy Lilikoi" off his upcoming solo album Go as a free download. This is old news to a lot of us, but if you happened to miss it, the song is still available for download on .

As if "Boy Lilikoi" wasn't teasing enough, "Go Do" made its radio debut a few days ago, and today, WNYC released a podcast featuring Jonsi playing a few songs from Go live in their soundcheck studio. I made individual copies of all four songs available for download below. Enjoy!

Go Do (acoustic)
Boy Lilikoi (acoustic)
Around Us (acoustic)
Go Do radio rip

"Around Us" is definitely my favourite song at the moment! I apologize for the abrupt endings though. I tried to keep as much of the song in while leaving out that guy's voice. He interrupted Jónsi too much.

Jónsi is releasing his solo album in March (not April... dunno what Mr. Schaefer is smoking :). He also revealed in an interview that he will be touring in the US this coming April and in Europe during May! It all seems so far away!

EDIT: lolsorry for accidentally deleting this entry for 10 minutes. How embarassing.

[currently listening to: Walking with his earphones - Frakkur]