Top 5 of January 19-25, 2014

(Editor's note: The format of ACRN's Drop It Like It's Hot has changed! Instead of posting only about the week's latest releases, ACRN's editors will incorporate the latest music news and two of the highest-rated albums on the website. The highest-rated album sections are written by the original reviewers. Drop It Like It's Hot will now be updated on Saturdays.)

By: Xavier Veccia, Features Editor

1. Damien Jurado: Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son 

By Sammi Nelson

"Seattle is undoubtedly the center for all things indie-folk. With an insane amount of musicians hailing from this Pacific-Northwest metropolis, an artist from the city has to have a significant influential impact on the music industry to be deemed as one of the kings.

Damien Jurado rightfully belongs in this category. His most recent album, Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, has an incredibly distinct sound that reflects the genre the 41-year-old musician has established for himself, yet it is so incredibly unique from all of his other albums." Read more at ACRN.com

2. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything
By Justin Silk

If Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything had been released in 2013, it would have at least hit number four on my top ten list of albums of the year. I really am a total sucker for Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra’s style of experimental post rock. In my defense, music like this is just so unbelievably engaging. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra doesn’t simply “write songs.” The band creates compositions--brilliant musical compositions that are long, but never dull. Each track on Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything has an immense amount of depth to it, and will take a lot of time to fully absorb. Therefore, it was great that an album with such profundity was released so early in the year. It gives listeners time to really contemplate the record. By December, placing it on an End of the Year list will be an easy thing to do. Music lovers of all kinds really owe it to themselves to give Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything a listen. The album definitely has its faults, but the incredible quality of its music will make them almost completely ignorable. 

3. Outkast Rumors

Outkast is everywhere and I could not be more excited about this. Whether it be on the Coachella lineup or on the Governor's Ball lineup or...okay, most of this Outkast news is for headlining gigs at insert festival here. But none of the concrete Outkast news has really gotten out of the touring stage. That didn't quite change this week, but us ATLien fans are getting somewhere with Big Boi's announcement of a solo LP dropping this year. He dodged any confirmation of an Outkast album, but with Mr. DJ, the longtime Outkast disc jockey, confirming in that same story that both Big Boi and Andre 3000 were working a lot in the studio, there's at least some sense of hope for us. At the very least, we're getting a new Big Boi album and, after his Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors release in 2012, that's more than enough.

4. Rap Genius Makes Some Friends

I don't care what any hater says--Rap Genius is one of the greatest things in the music bizz. But they've been getting in a lot of trouble lately. From getting targeted for possible copyright infringement to Google demoting them on search pages, things weren't looking up for the geniuses behind Rap Genius. But all that changed with Universal Music Publishing granting the site permission to print their artists' lyrics. With a massive amount of talent on the Universal roster, this was a huge win for Rap Genius.

5. Justin Bieber's Collapse

I've never been a huge fan of the Biebs. Yeah, I low-key loved "As Long As You Love Me," and sure, I was pretty psyched when I saw he did a song with Chance. But other than that, I thought as much about him as any other pop artist. Until this. If you were too lazy to follow that link (I mean, it's the Internet age. We're better than links), I'll try to give this story the justice it deserves. Justin Bieber was caught drag racing in his Lambo while under the influence of weed, beer and antidepressants. The "Baby" singer was charged with drag racing and a DUI. A slow collapse for a child star is never a surprise, but not many reach this level of insanity. Hopefully, this is the last DUI for Biebs because, I mean, driving under the influence is a pretty shitty thing to do. But I'm not against him continuing to be this entertaining of a celebrity.

November 26 Releases, 2013

By: Megan Fair, Copy Editor

The dreary drudge of sludge and sleet has thrust itself upon us, leaving a desire for homemade food and endless naps. Likewise, this week did not offer many big releases in the industry, so bear with me as I scrounge up my very scattered thoughts about this week’s big releases. What can I say? My brain is craving tryptophan, so if it’s not turkey, my brain doesn’t care.

First up to bat is the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack. The last Hunger Games Soundtrack featured artists such as Arcade Fire, Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars. This soundtrack is stacked with even more big name, exciting artists expressing their take on feelings and scenes from the blockbuster. This team has heavy hitters all around ranging from Ellie Goulding to Coldplay to the Lumineers.

Patti Smith’s soulful “Capitol Letter” has a Johnny Cash-does-“Hurt” vibe, which is pretty cool. “Devil May Cry” is The Weeknd’s smooth track. The floating falsetto vocals are pretty rad, and The Weeknd’s signature sound is ever present. Santigold’s contribution, “Shooting Arrows at the Sky,” is spunky and cool, and “Atlas” is a Coldplay track that doesn’t do anything crazy, but it is Coldplay, so... 

Possibly the coolest track on this soundtrack is Lorde’s eerie cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” The youngster’s caramelized voice drips over martial pounding and ambient background music until a blasting build at the end. 

Closing out this week’s Drop It Like It’s Hot is One Direction. Oh, those cheeky boys with such charming accents. From what I hear, everyone’s still creamin’, especially with the tracks on Midnight Memories. As much as one may be inclined to hate, the boys do have great pipes, and their music is intended to be very fun. This album is definitely edgier, but it continually expresses their fun side while emphasizing the fact that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Also, you can’t deny that you definitely sing “Best Song Ever” when you’re alone in your car. 

In a slow sea of mostly nobodies, these are the albums that stuck out this week. I couldn’t even tell you one artist who dropped an album today that more than 50 people care about. At least you can rest easy knowing that those food comas aren’t keeping you from missing any important album releases. 

October 22 Releases, 2013

By: Colin Roose, Album Reviews Editor

I think it says something about our culture when a week with nearly two-dozen major-label releases is considered disappointing. Think about it: how many new albums are you going to listen to this week? I can't claim to know you, sir or madam, but probably not anywhere close to all of them. Do you know what that means? It means that you, me and the rest of America have come to expect a level of music production far greater than our capacity to consume. Oh, capitalism.

Anyway, you're probably not going to sell many albums this week if you're not Katy Perry. Prism is guaranteed to smash all the records when it descends upon the FM-listening public this week, and will probably be number one for about ten bazillion weeks. 

If you've been breathing air for the last month, you're 200% likely to have heard the lead single "Roar." It's stuffed with big, obvious hooks, hacky, clichéd lines like "I've earned my stripes," and was accompanied with an equally tacky music video. And I love every second of it.

No, no, don't roll your eyes. I'll talk about good music in a second here, after I sift through all the names I've never heard of on the list of releases.

Aha! Best Coast, with its EP Fade Away. Original surf-rock may have lost its relevance the moment The Beach Boys made Pet Sounds, but all those punks picked it back up and kicked it around for a while in the early '80s. And now we have this band to give the California beaches a nice jangly indie sheen. You can almost see the waves cresting and crashing on the guitar reverb and singer Bethany Cosentino yelling from across the sand. I miss summer already.

There's Motörhead too, who, according to metalhead extraordinaire/my roommate Justin, have put out the same album over and over since the '90s. I think it's understandable, though. I wouldn't know how to top "Ace of Spades" either. Lemmy still somehow sounds like a car trying to start, and the guitars have a modern flavor of angry.

Ducktails! Woo-oo! Continuing the trend of "one guy trying to pass himself off as a band," Matthew Mondanile makes music lonely dudes tend to create: vaguely psychedelic, very-produced indie rock. The style of his new EP Wish Hotel has been christened with the name "hypnagogic pop." Dream-pop is already sleepy enough, so apparently hypnagogic pop is indie's equivalent of Ambien. If you have a tolerance for the blurry-eyed wonder mood, you may enjoy this children's cartoon-loving hypnotist.

Aaaand…yep, that's everyone you're going to care about in music this week. No, we are not talking about Ted Nugent. Ever. No, we are not talking about a band called "Gringo Star." I wish we could talk about Donna Summer, but she only has a remix album out this week. Pity. But stay tuned until next week, when Arcade Fire will reflekt some sunlight onto the dim light shone by this week's album releases.

September 24 Releases, 2013

By: Zack Baker, Copy Editor

New releases are on the light side this week, but that doesn't mean there isn't any great music dropping. Everyone seems to have jumped out of the way this week to make room for the OVO-headmaster himself (Drake), but a few other upstarts are on the calendar with our Canadian friend. 

Obviously, the most talked-about album hitting shelves today is Nothing Was The Same, Drake's latest full-length. The album's been pulling hype for the past few months with consistent lead-up singles spanning the genre grab bag that Drake occupies. There's radio-banger "Started From The Bottom," R&B-Drake classic "Hold On We're Going Home" and the controversially named "Wu-Tang Forever." 

Drake isn't breaking new ground with NWTS, but the production has been stepped up a level and Drake has a more consistent flow than on his past two albums. If you're a Drake hater, I doubt this release will convert you to The Church Of Drake™, but it's the best Drake album that Drake has ever made. Drake.

Odd Future-affiliated neo-soul duo The Internet dropped Feel Good today, and it's a marked improvement over their debut, Purple Naked Ladies. Fresh off a nationwide tour supporting Mac Miller, The Internet have put together a fantastic jazz-funk-soul-R&B-vibey-whatever album that doesn't sound like anything else out at the moment. 

Delicate chords tumble precariously over snappy basslines and fantastic drums, creating music that doesn't need to get into your face to prove its worth. Early single "Dontcha" and late album cut "Shadow Dance" are the best of the bunch here--they exemplify the fantastically aimless feel of the music and Syd's vocals drape perfectly over the chilled out instrumentals.

Scottish synthpop trio Chvrches also have a new effort out this week, and it's an album that I'm sure to be listening to through the end of the year. The Bones Of What You Believe is the culmination of almost two years of hype-building and scattershot releases from the group, and while many tracks have been kicking around the blogosphere for some time, the album still feels remarkably fresh.

Since the band caught some attention with "The Mother We Share" in late 2011, it has been expanding on what fans can expect from a Chvrches release. "Lies," "Gun," "Recover" and the subsequent Recover EP established the band's core sound, and thankfully The Bones of What You Believe reaches beyond those expectations. From the hard-hitting "Lungs" to the drifting "You Caught The Light," Chvrches prove that there was a reason behind all of its buzz.

Apart from these releases, the week is pretty sparse. There's a new Kings of Leon album, which I assume sounds like a Kings of Leon album, and a fantastic new Mazzy Star release to give a little more competition to the great Northern radio savior. Not the most amazing week for new releases, but plenty to keep you busy until Danny Brown's Old on September 30th.

September 17 Releases, 2013

By Rachel Haas, Managing Editor

For me, this week is kind of an exciting week for music. Not only is MGMT’s self-titled third release finally coming out, but Mr. VanWyngarden and Mr. Goldwasser are accompanied by Nick Thorburn’s Islands, Grouplove and a band that I interviewed over the summer, Royal Bangs.

Like I said, you should start getting a little pumped.

Connecticut’s psychedelic rock duo is back with MGMT, an album that seemed to be pushed back for, like, ever. The follow-up to 2010’s Congratulations has been steadily building up buzz with the band's usual vague interviews and oddly wonderful musings. More recently, they put out the album’s first single, “Alien Days,” with live appearances on late-night TV not far behind. Many MGMT fans were disappointed with the outfit’s last release since, you know, the band didn’t have a thousand carbon copies of “Kids” and “Electric Feel.” Judging by “Alien Days,” don’t expect VanWynGarden and Goldwasser to return to the realms of Oracular Spectacular just yet.

Congratulations grew on me after a few listens, and I learned to love it like I love Oracular. I have no doubt that even if MGMT’s album is another deviation of their sound and skills, it’ll be hella fun, and I am so stoked.

OK, now that I’m done fangirling over that, let’s move on to Islands. Last year (Feb. 14, to be exact), former-Unicorn Nicholas Thorburn dropped A Sleep & A Forgetting. Thorburn told us that album was “centered more on life and things that happen while you are alive. It's kind of a dark sort of outlook on how life really is,” and the product of a very personal breakup. This time around, the singer says the band's upcoming release Ski Mask is all about being angry. After listening to the single “Becoming the Gunship,” I can’t wait to see where Thorburn’s anger takes him.

Grouplove makes some really top-notch catchy dance hits that are part of the handful of songs I actually don’t hate when the band comes on the radio. “Colours,” “Tongue Tied” and “Itchin’ on a Photograph” were so much fun and these guys put on one ultra-fun live show. I have a fondness for them in my soul, and my fingers are crossed for some more sing-alongs.

And finally, Brass is also set to drop courtesy of Knoxville, Tenn. band Royal Bangs, a rock outfit discovered by The Black Keys’ Pat Carney and formerly signed to Audio Eagle Records. They’re fun.

Oh, and a shout-out to Elton John. You little tiny wonderful dancer, you. 

April 9 Releases, 2013

By: Emily Votaw, Features & Interviews Editor

The week of April 9, 2013, is just not a good one if you, you know, like music. Right off the bat we’ve got some real clunkers: Paramore, Brad Paisley, Stone Sour and even the infamous Paul Anka--bringing the softest of rock and the strangest of cover selections to his latest release.

Paramore was got pretty big sometime around 2007, and the world has been regretting whatever horrible toxic agent polluted the national water supply enough to make an entire generation of eighth graders purchase Riot! ever since. To me, this is nothing but boring pop punk riffs and dead percussion. But to some, Paramore is one of the defining bands of my generation, so maybe I’m missing something. Listening to the singles the band has been releasing over the past several months--and believe you me, this took some mighty self discipline on my part--I discovered one thing: I still really, really, really don’t enjoy Paramore. I couldn’t advise watching the video for “Now” because I don’t think I “got” it either. There are people in a desert, a guy in a military uniform--I don’t understand. 

Up next is Brad Paisley. Need I say more? If there is a man who single-handedly encapsulates the culture that has forever changed modern country music, it is Brad Paisley. I don’t like so many things about Brad Paisley. Once again, that’s just my snotty take on Mr. Paisley. I did grow up in a very rural area, and at some point, modern country-rock started to get under my skin. Warning: his new album is entitled Wheelhouse--and I want you to know that that is the word for that goofy little room on a boat where they keep the steering wheel. I hope you have been to Put-In-Bay, and I hope that you have ridden Miller’s Ferry, because one of those boats (which takes people to the most depressing party isle on Lake Erie) is a perfect depiction of what a “wheelhouse” is. I know that Paisley is probably not trying to conjure anything nautical with the title of his latest release--I just desperately hope that he is.

I mentioned Paul Anka earlier--and I do intend to write about him, but I need to save the “best” for last because, sadly, the guy who sang “Diana” is arguably the most artistically legitimate of the last two acts I named off. Really, this album, cleverly titled Duets, is made up of just that--a collection of duets that Anka recorded with all types of odd and kind of boring musicians. You’ve got Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Gloria Estefan and, of course, no truly vanilla recording would be complete without Michael Bublé! I can’t say that I enjoy this material, and it’s not just because it’s showing all the classic symptoms of “Grandma Music”--it’s because the duets just aren’t cohesive. There is too much jumping around, and this just does feel like a collection of mediocre crooner songs.

I know I have been rather negative, and perhaps not as eloquent as I could have been. I just feel like I owe it to my fellow music-lovers to let them know that this week of releases is just a big ol’ barrel of stinkers. 

April 2 Releases, 2013

By: Zack Baker, Copy Editor

This week has basically been the week from hell for me. I’ve been buried under papers, exams and quizzes for every single one of my classes, so taking a break from all that stress to check out this week’s new music was much needed for me. And luckily, this week’s releases rule in so many different ways.

Up first is Tyler, The Creator’s Wolf. If you’ve been paying attention to music at all for the past few years, you know who Tyler is. The ringleader of hip-hop collective Odd Future, Tyler’s been putting out music that varies in theme from offensive jokes about rape and homophobia to introspective tracks about his estranged father and social anxiety issues. His collective’s gained quite a following, and the follow-up to his 2011 release Goblin has been hotly anticipated. Wolf is a continuation of these themes, and while production quality has gone up significantly, the weird split between Tyler’s styles has only become more prominent. Next to the album’s numerous high points (“Jamba,” “Answer,” “IFHY,” “Rusty,” “Tamale” and “Lone”), a lot of the songs on this 18 track opus fall flat.

The Cold War Kids also dropped Dear Miss Lonelyhearts and, even though I’ve never listened to the group before, I thought I’d give it a shot. Based on what little I know about the band, this album definitely seems to be incorporating a lot more electronic stuff than their previous albums (it’s 2013, what else is new?). Lots of really thumping basslines here, and Nathan Willett’s vocals fit right in with the chaotic instrumentals below them. Seems like some pretty groovy stuff for anyone looking for a harder take on indie rock with a dash of electronic influence thrown in for good measure.

So, New Kids On The Block are apparently back. How could I pass up the opportunity to see what a band who peaked well before my time are producing well after their prime? 10 is an album with a deeply confusing name (it’s not the ten year anniversary of anything as far as I can tell, nor their tenth studio album), a fantastically outdated album cover and no discernable style of its own. Particularly strange and hilarious is “Remix (I Like The),” which sounds like what would happen if Nickelback tried to do a psuedo-dance track and talked about remixes as a metaphor for a female dancing. Pretty much everything else here sounds like an attempt to bring the boy band craze back, and while it’s nice to reminisce about what bad taste we all had back then, the album doesn’t serve any purpose other than that.

This week also brings the release of new albums from Alkaline Trio and Bring Me The Horizon if you like your music on the heavier side, and Telekinesis and Generationals if you’re more keen to the indie rock persuasion.