Algiers -- The Underside of Power

that one really, really industrial one is where dan will lose his shit the most, i predict

I've been waiting for a week when I can really dedicate myself to this, but my early reaction was this is the album TV on the Radio sometimes hinted at but never delivered. But maybe next time I listen I won't think/hear that at all.

this album really harshly reminds me of the fact that so many bands would benefit from having an actual singer

I don't think this can be stated enough.

Also, I don't know if a side-effect of my reaction to this band/album should be "fuck off forever, Zeal and Ardor" but it's definitely popped into my head a few times.

I'm still quietly amazed that Franklin considers himself -- as he said to me directly! -- much more of a guitarist than a singer. He's definitely not interested in being the perceived frontman/focal point of the group.

Pitchfork putting DJ Khaled and Jeff Tweedy in their "new albums to listen to" roundup but not this has me deeply annoyed

Yeah, I've been wondering if there's any particular reason as to why Pitchfork has basically ignored this album.

this rocks

Yeah, I've been wondering if there's any particular reason as to why Pitchfork has basically ignored this album.

― MarkoP, Friday, June 23, 2017 11:52 AM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it seems very "Pitchfork-y"

it's too good and they're scared

This and Kendrick tied for my favourite LP of 2017 so far.

Well this is a thing isn't it.

okay so this album...

...yes?

it's very good isn't it? i mean, very VERY good. If Ministry circa Psalm 69 had teamed up with the Four Tops and made a super-intelligent protest album, this would be it. The vinyl I got sent the other day comes with some lovely packaging and a free 7" too.

If Ministry circa Psalm 69 sounded even half as good as these guys, I might still be listening to them.

What he said.

his album really harshly reminds me of the fact that so many bands would benefit from having an actual singer

I don't think this can be stated enough.

Also, I don't know if a side-effect of my reaction to this band/album should be "fuck off forever, Zeal and Ardor" but it's definitely popped into my head a few times.

― a butt groove but for feet (DJP), Friday, June 23, 2017 11:16 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah he's a great singer

I've been waiting for a week when I can really dedicate myself to this, but my early reaction was this is the album TV on the Radio sometimes hinted at but never delivered. But maybe next time I listen I won't think/hear that at all.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, June 23, 2017 11:06 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also agree w/this, the Young Liars EP (as corny it is to be "their early EP was the best" lol) had a rawness about it that changed as they went on, or honestly maybe it was just those songs stuck with him in a way a lot of their later stuff didn't (with exceptions)

just read Ned's article and the accompanying breakdown of the different tracks. so refreshing to read a piece that concentrates wholly on the creative process

Too kind -- it helped that by listing who all was involved (and since I knew their work to one degree or another) that after I made the initial pitch and it was accepted, I followed up with "I'd really love to talk to everyone who worked on the album too" -- and the editors signed off. After that I was off to the races.

I fucking adore that NPR article, great job. I put off reading it until I familiarised myself with the album a bit, because I didn’t want to have any preconceived expectations before listening. But boy, this piece (and the track-by-track analysis) really does give another dimension to this already complex record. Especially for a person like me—English is not my first language, so it really helped me catch some nuances/references in the lyrics. Thanks.

You're most welcome. Complex is the word, but it's definitely a very immediate release too -- it's an obvious comparison point (so obvious I didn't bring it up in the article in the end, though I batted it back and forth) but in terms of ambition and layering and hooks all at once, there's more than a hint of PE/Bomb Squad circa It Takes a Nation of Millions (not to mention in terms of documenting the wider context of its creation). It's also obviously not the only album since then that's taken that as a cue, but it's a hell of a strong example.

Credit to that (one of those) piece(s) that referenced this, which I had never heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKJee1zwS0

This is immense.

It's a big step up from the debut

Hymn for an Average Man feels like Portishead's ideal next direction

Good interview in the Quietus

http://thequietus.com/articles/22709-algiers-interview-the-underside-of-power

the chorus to the title track is just so ludicrously good

this on amazon + depeche mode 2cd deluxe edition of spirit = £20.97.

i.e. 97p over the free postage requirement.

seems like a rather good deal to me.

i have suspect this band were always going to win me over.

I went to check out the LP in a Toronto record shop and it was $34.99 :/

ok, a few tracks in ..
this is what the second age of chance album should have been like.

ok wtffffff pitchfork

imo this is their dumbest pan since....idek when?

this sounds like the black keys or something... who knew the combined forces of bloc party and portishead could fail to excite...

I like it. Title track particularly.

Weird missing the point apex of the (tbf not really a pan) review: "Algiers have produced a record that is timely and necessary but also scatterbrained and messy."

Well, yeah.

Just the list of proper names and other references in the review underscores the album's achievements: Black Panthers and Fred Hampton, Che Guevara, Camus’ The Plague, T.S. Eliot, Italian zombie exploitation flicks and horror film disco, PiL, Michael Stipe, Walter Benjamin, Jamaican soul, Dominick Fernow’s Vatican Shadow, Geto Boys, Afrika Bambaataa, grime, footwork, Portishead, Wendy Carlos, Donny Hathaway, the Shangri-Las, Delia Derbyshire, Bad Brains, the Clash, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Fishbone, Dicks. That's one heck of a RIYL.

this sounds like the black keys or something

What in the absolute hell

I think it's fair to call that a pan. There's no unqualified praise for even a single track.

It's a pan only in the not generic 7.8 or BNM sense. Reads to me like a mixed review, no unqualified praise or no. There's also no unqualified dismissal of anything either, is there? Anyway, if I were Joe Wannabuyanalbum, I'd be more inclined to listen to this one based on this review than listen to something more positively received.

yeah but joe wannabuyanalbum only looks at the score these days

idk even if i thought this was an ambitious album that didn't quite pull off what it was aiming for, i wouldn't have slapped it with a score under 6, that's some contrarianist bullshit

Sort of what I mean. If anything, the review (the words) does a pretty good job explaining all the album has going for it, even if the writer doesn't think it pulls it off. That's what the review is for, and why (as silly as numbers are) the review reads (to me) more like a 7.x that explains why it's not higher than a 5.x which doesn't quite nail why its arbitrary number is so low.

First listen to this a few weeks ago damn near blew me away but returns felt like the individual songs were lacking a bit, especially Walk Like A Panther as an opener. Title track and Animals jumped out as being more than just polemic and bluster, but wasn't convinced by the rest.

However, going back to it this morning on the walk to work, it's stronger than I remember. Maybe not quite hitting me as hard as some so far, but getting there. The placement of the two instrumental tracks near the end feels strategically strong to me; it gives enough pause for things to kick back in so you don't feel bludgeoned (even though you are being!).

I think Black Eunuch and Blood are pretty much as good as anything on here, but other than that this is definitely a step up.

Yeah I was blown away and now I've given it a bit of a break and ready to go back to it soon. Still think the title track is an absolute worldbeater. Animals is the one that sounds like Ministry (in a good way) and overall it's really great. There are just one or two tension-diffusing moments towards the second side that aren't interesting enough to keep my mind from wandering.

I'm trying to think of what specific 80s band Mme Rieux sounds like. Not sure how much I like it. There's something just slightly cheesy or obviously melodramatic about that one.

Full video for "Cleveland"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhcJTqJm98

This is quite an improvment on their debut, huh?

Hymn For an Average Man is a highlight.

Great show last night!

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/20121550_10155331411186136_2391515124569243158_o.jpg?oh=32b6d200ef32ffd0412fd137ded5627f&oe=59F60803

So see 'em live, I sez.

I would kill for them to hit TO but it doesn't seem to be in the cards

Hell, Chicago isn't even currently on their tour schedule.

It's possible they're avoiding places they hit with Depeche? idk