When I saw Tender Forever she was endearing and fun, but her music came across as too cute for me to really like. Her second album for K Records comes close to the above description, and while lyrics like “This bed is too nice, I want to kiss your eyes” cause me cute-overload, these moments are few and far between.
Press Play – Album Reviews
Tender Forever
Wider
***
When I saw Tender Forever she was endearing and fun, but her music came across as too cute for me to really like. Her second album for K Records comes close to the above description, and while lyrics like “This bed is too nice, I want to kiss your eyes” cause me cute-overload, these moments are few and far between. Wider is definitely a Northwest album: one part electronic pop akin to The Blow and one part Mirah-type vocals with a slight accent. But Tender Forever fails to capture the catchiness of the former, and the emotive weight of the latter. Still, she’s crafted a solid album that will appeal to fans of both.
–Talmage Garn
R.E.M.
R.E.M. Live
***
After over 20 years in the spotlight, R.E.M. has amassed a great back catalog of songs, with enough hits and fan favorites to fill up multiple albums. That’s why it’s so disappointing that the still hardworking band decided to fill up this two-CD live set with newer and mostly uninspired tracks. Most of the band’s gems are relegated to the encore, and you’ll find yourself constantly skipping through the clunky ballads to get straight to the songs you really want to hear (Drive, Losing My Religion, etc.)
The included concert DVD is a better bet because the energy the band puts into the show makes up for the lackluster material. If you are a die-hard R.E.M. fan you’ll want to own this, but for others just dust off your old copies of Document and Automatic for the People instead.
–Stover E. Harger III
Battles
Tonto single
***
Battles have been getting a lot of publicity recently, with write-ups in The New York Times among other prestigious publications. The hype appears to be justified. The band’s brand of math-rock is both catchy and experimental. On this single, the song “Tonto,” off their debut album Mirrored, Battles are in fine form. The song is great—spiraling guitars and complex keyboards abound. Battles are obviously very experienced musicians. And the remixes are kind of cool (though they don’t add much to the original material). The best part of the release is the included DVD, which has the Tonto music video. The video is a collaboration with art installationists United Visual Artists, and is visually fascinating. The band is performing on an old slate pile, and pillars of LED lights surround them when they perform. The lights are programmed to the music. It’s a sparse set, but it really works with the band’s sound.
Battles will play at the Hawthorne Theater on Fri. Nov. 2.
–Ed Johnson
1990s
Cookies
**
1990s is a Scottish band best known for being semi-related to Franz Ferdinand (both band’s have members that were in the band Yummy Fur). It’s unfortunate that their sound is so similar to their famous peers, because Cookies is honestly a little bit boring. It’s fairly energetic pop rock, with a kind of lo-fi ‘60s vibe going for it, but at this point, that sound is pretty played out. All the songs sound about the same, and the lyrics are standard rock n’ roll fare, my favorite being “My cold status keeps me alive, my cold status keeps me fucking your wife.” 1990s aren’t afraid to be assholes.
1990s will play Dante’s on Sat. Nov. 3.
–Ed Johnson
