HYLI Vol. XLVI - Phoenix and The Haunted
Patrick sends Andy some '00s French indie-rock and Andy sends Patrick some '00s Swedish thrash
Hope y’all had a good Thanksgiving. Weird holiday for me but I get why it’s important for most. My wife’s (Patrick) dad came into town and it was nice enough, he always leaves at like 5AM on Friday lol so it allowed for us to have a nice holiday weekend alone. Anyways, the USMNT beat Iran yesterday, so Go Soccer or whatever. Hope You Like It.
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Patrick: I don’t particularly like The Band Phoenix. Their stuff prior to this album is fine enough but kinda music that gets by on attitude alone without much Good about it. The stuff after is largely insufferable lol. However, 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is one of my GOATs of the decade.
This is the perfect blend of indie-sleaze rock that kinda dominated that decade for me, much like the earlier records from The Strokes, and synth-pop that tends to be done better by the Euros than Americans.
“Rome” is one of my favorite tunes of the decade. Thomas Mars has such a command of melody on this album, and kind of not on any of their other stuff, and “Rome” has one of the better hooks here. “Lasso” is another; a perfect windows-down and shouting along on the highway type song. The “Love Like a Sunset” suite in the middle does a better job of the instrumental interlude than a lot of bands in this sound accomplish. And then the singles. Come on. They’re so fucking good.
Instrumentally, it’s all about the synth and the guitars for me here. There’s a cool thing where the guitars sound like synths and the synths sound like guitars, especially on “Armistice” that is some of my favorite shit. I’m gonna guess that this smoothes out the weirdness of an album in a similar genre that Andy liked, in the form of last week’s The New Abnormal, and he’ll like it less, but I hope I’m wrong. I Hope He Likes It.
(Andy: Oops.)
Andy: So, I really enjoyed last week’s the Strokes album. Patrick said he picked this week’s album because I liked last week’s so I expected some type of stronger connection between the two. And while I see the connection, it kinda feels like Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix is lacking whatever made The New Abnormal so enjoyable. Like The Strokes are the cool underground guy, playing for the passion of the music and Phoenix are trying to get that Top-40 check. It doesn’t have the same soul that The Strokes did. It just didn’t really connect for me at all. The Strokes shred and Phoenix strum. Is anything I’m saying making sense (Patrick: do you ever make sense)? I don’t even know what I’m trying to say (Patrick: we know). Whatever it was that grabbed me with that Strokes album is missing entirely from this.
With all that said, I didn’t hate it. I just kinda… nothing it? Like it exists and I listened to it and here we are. I’m pretty positive I’ve heard the first few songs on car commercials or something (Patrick: maybe the most synced songs of the decade, yeah). If not, they sound like car commercial songs. I guess that is good for some people but it didn’t do much for me. It absolutely could be because this last week I was “on vacation” with 2 kids for Thanksgiving so maybe I didn’t give it as much of my attention as I typically do.
I probably won’t return to this again but I’ll keep spinning The New Abnormal so I consider this a win. I Listened To It.
The Haunted - rEVOLVEr
Andy: Patrick’s comments about last weeks Static-X album not being metal (it is) and instead being butt-rock (it also is… butt-metal maybe?) got me thinking of similar bands. Like Five Finger Death Punch being bad butt-metal but Static-X is good butt-metal. I don’t know. There is something there. Anyway, I picked this cause for whatever reason I always kinda listen to The Haunted whenever Static-X makes its way back into rotation. Really seems like it should be one he connects with but you never know. He might be like “this sucks ass we aren’t friends anymore” or something (Patrick: we will always be friends, why does this feel like a threat). Always a gamble.
This album is a lifeboat for people who were devastated by At The Gates breakup. While not as thrashy as any At the Gates album, rEVOLVEr exists in this sort of easy-listening space for At The Gates fans. Is what I’m saying making any sense at all? The band is mostly ex-At The Gates guys, they know what they’re doing and they know how to do it well. Some great riffs on this album. Songs like “Abysmal” and “Burnt to a Shell” are highlights for me outside of the obvious “99” and “All Against All”. In the same vein, “My Shadow” rocks as a closer. Pat won’t like it cause he is a dork (Patrick: oh). Hope You Like It.
Patrick: I’m just gonna rip the bandaid off here. This album is a mixed bag for me (Andy: Oh, I fully agree with that statement.) Half of it is my favorite stuff Andy has sent me in this newsletter and half (well, really more three-quarters / one-quarter) kinda blows.
“Burnt to a Shell” might be my favorite song that Andy has sent me. It sinks into a neat little half-time groove while vocalist Peter Dolving gives some absolutely sick vocal performances. The guitars are so fucking thick, it really blows away the production of a lot of the similar albums he’s sent.
The vocals being so good on “Burnt to a Shell” kind of bring me to what I dislike about this album though. It’s clear he’s a good screamer, as I said, he fucking shreds on that song. However, when he Sings, he uhhh does not do a good job (Andy: not me loving a bad singer again. Definitely not on brand for me). Granted, he does it sparingly, but it really ruins a song like “Abysmal” that otherwise is kind of the opposite of its name. He seems to be doing a kind-of Layne Staley-type thing that doesn’t work for me at all. It pops up again on “All Against All” and a few other tracks. Also, don’t really care for the closer, “My Shadow.” I’m predicting Andy will love it. He loves it when little twerps whisper in metal (Andy: I LOVE when twerps whisper in metal. Whispering + metal = always great) (Patrick: see).
While these aren’t my favorite, the good outweighs the bad. Again, “Burnt to a Shell,” golden. “Nothing Right” and “Liquid Burns” are insane and actually have drums that are fast and heavy as hell but sound real. Other bands Andy sends me, take note! If Per Jensen can do it, so can you! I Really Liked It When I Liked It and Didn’t When I Didn’t.