Great Albums #1

Inspired by Ebert's regular feature, "Great Movies," I wrote this blog with the same idea in mind--to honor a past work of art that deserves to be well known. It's also a protest against the death of the album brought about by mp3s and the general crappiness of artists everywhere. You could probably argue with my first choice, but I don't see any reason to go with obvious choices like a Beatles album. Plenty of other sites talk about those.

"Take these rings
Stow them safe away
I'll wear them on
another rainy day"
"Cheated Hearts"

Some artists are hard to dismiss even though they haven't done anything so compelling that you really love it. I guess this is what people mean when they say the latest new band "has potential." The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been like that for me ever since I came across the song "Art Star" while doing college radio. The gag was funny enough for me to still remember it and the song way catchier than necessary for any joke. But the intense screaming relegated them to college radio status only, and I had no reason to think I would see the again.

Since I love selling out for the greater good, I was happy to hear "Maps" on the radio and enjoyed it as an excellent pop song with a nice, touching chorus. The rest of that album, Fever to Tell, was hard to dislike, but I can't say it stayed in my CD player (remember those?) for very long. Over the years, I've learned to enjoy "Date with the Night" the most from that album, but the whole thing is marred by my experience of hearing them live and wishing there was a bass player.

I must have listened to Show Your Bones a couple times before I even remembered their Doors-like instrument setup. Unlike The Doors, there is no studio bass player here, at least as far as I can tell. I will feel pretty stupid if I'm wrong but all I hear is a gritty guitar sound with the guitarist playing low when necessary for majestic effect. And if anything, it sets their sound apart from similar bands, "both big and punk," as Robert Christgau put it.

It also lets us focus on very majestic pop choruses without them becoming overbearing and this album has one after another of those. The first track is the single, and is fine, but then the second track is even heavier with a catchier guitar riff and you start to wonder why they chose such a boring single. By the time you get to the amazing centerpiece, "Cheating Hearts" at track 6, there has been no ballad or "boring" songs at all. Every song 'rocks' without the album becoming monotonous.

In fact, when I was still listening to that sixth track over and over, I started skipping over the last few because they start out slow-paced and I figured it was the usual compulsory ballads at the end of an album. When I would listen to the whole album at once, though, I started wondering where the boring songs were? Turns out on this album under 40 minutes they may start slow but they always develop into something interesting.

Plus, not only are they classy enough to keep the album length down to the length of a commute, "Turn Into" is the perfect album finisher. Moderate rock with intriguing, touching lyrics, halfway between upbeat and poignant. While Karen O singing "Can't say why I kept this from ya / My those quiet eyes become ya" helps make the song great, when the drummer comes in the song rescues itself from just another slow song on to end an album. It turns into a song that makes you think about how excellent all the songs were on this album. Maybe the album format will survive after all.