Records of the Week: 4/14/11

Ok, ok.  I know I originally wanted to compile three of the best albums from the first nine weeks of Records of the Week, but I’ve been enjoying these albums a bit lately.  So maybe I’ll hold off on that idea until the twenty-fifth or fiftieth post or something.  I’d have a lot more albums to choose from, and most of you guys wouldn’t remember some of the earlier stuff.  We’ll see.  But in the meantime…onto this week’s albums!

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

PJ Harvey is one of those artists who always seem to get glowing reviews from critics, but rarely receive any real mainstream success.  PJ’s music would probably sound great on rock radio and be an interesting change, so it’s a real shame that she isn’t bigger than she is.  This album Let England Shake is her first since 2007′s White Chalk, and it actually charted in the top 10 in many countries (although it only reached 32 in the US).  It’s hard to classify PJ as one specific sound, and this album is tough to put a label on as well.  In simplest terms it’s an indie rock record, but it’s so much more than the average album of that type.  It has really interesting melodies and great instrumentation.  “In The Dark Places” is my favorite song.  It has a really cool bassy keyboard sound and an amazing melody (check out the song to get a good feel of her sound).

Kanye West – Graduation

Kanye West’s Graduation just might be one of the best mainstream pop albums of all time.  Almost every song has radio potential, and its most popular single, “Stronger,” might be the biggest song of the past five years.  I’ve said this before a few times, but what makes Kanye so immediately interesting is his musical structure.  On Graduation, there’s a lot of poppy synth lines and satisfying musical changes.  “Flashing Lights” is driven by a melancholy violin and dance synths in a surprisingly laid back manner, and it’s a testament to the songwriting style that a song with that kind of vibe was a mainstream hit.  One of the more lesser known songs on the album (at least by casual radio listeners) is “The Glory.”  The song features one of Kanye’s trademark soul samples over a bass-drum heavy beat.  “Can I talk my shit again/even if I don’t hit again?/Dawg, are you fuckin’ kidding?” is a lyric from the song…and I think it’s safe to say that Kanye is going to keep “hitting” throughout his career, especially if he makes another album like Graduation.

Elliott Smith – Figure 8

I’m honestly surprised a record like Figure 8 wasn’t put higher up on “Best of the 00s” lists.  It’s such an instrumentally complex record, and I think a lot of people who listen to Elliott Smith’s music take that for granted.  He had always written unique chord progressions for his more acoustic-oriented work before this album’s release, of course; but Figure 8 was the first album where he became very ambitious with what was played over those chords.  Of course there’s more straight-forward rockers like “LA” and “Son of Sam,” but songs like “Junk Bond Trader” – with its harpsichord style keyboards, strings and ever-present backing vocals – are much more fleshed out musically.  The entire album just seems more epic in scope, and it’s an impressive display of Smith’s composing skills.  People seem to enjoy classifying him as a singer-songwriter, but I think he was so much more – a guy who was very musically talented and wasn’t limited to that mindset or musical style.  And even more sparse songs like “Somebody That I Used To Know” and “I Better Be Quiet Now” work so well and are excellent reminders of Elliott’s ability to write moody acoustic music.  I really think this album deserves more credit than it gets.