Matt & Kim
“Sidewalks”
Fader
Released: Today
5.8/10
It’s been a hot year for the playground set; the bouncy, hopscotch swagger of Sleigh Bells and Willow Smith has blown up on the Internet and radio alike, enveloping listeners with elementary school electro anthems.
But this subset of music made its first splash in 2009 with the surprise smash single “Daylight,” courtesy of Brooklyn duo Matt & Kim on its sophomore album “Grand.” The sunny piano loop and simple, but smartly constructed melody of that single painted a wild canvas of childlike wonder and quickly intoxicated a public always clamoring for another taste of youth.
But while the follow-up to “Grand” is still shooting to be young at heart, it lands somewhere closer to puberty.
The awkward sincerity of “Northeast” and the uneven squiggle and symphony of “Good for Great” feel half-baked and unsure. The unconvincing rebelliousness of “Red Paint” certainly completes the picture of the confused and insecure teenager.
Another “Daylight” is not to be found, although it would be silly to expect the still-fresh duo to immediately capture that magic again. “Cameras” — the leadoff single — does its best to fill the slot and salvages an otherwise gray situation.
Built upon that same frame of concrete smashing percussion and sliding synth samples, it pops with rumpus room xylophone rattles and swanky brass swings into a pulsating playground anthem.
Mostly, “Sidewalks” feels rushed, scribbled and afraid to full regress into the childlike state that gave the band its original spark.
— Joshua Boydston, psychology junior
Taylor Swift
“Speak Now”
Big Machine
Released: Oct. 25
8.3/10
Judgment regrettably, inevitably follows any success story, but Taylor Swift shows she still has something to prove as a 20-year-old success story, as she straddles the fence between the many external forces — cliché versus originality, pop versus country and childhood versus adulthood — that she addresses in her latest release, “Speak Now.”
Released almost a full two years since her last album, “Speak Now” is the older, more reliable sister to 2008’s angsty, teenage “Fearless.”
But while the award-winning latter album was about exploring self-identity through relationships, “Speak Now” finds Swift exploring the external forces of her life. Each song is tailored (pun very intended) as a personal confession to someone else, from the soul mate in “Mine” to the former love getting hitched in “Speak Now,” which especially plays up Swift’s talent to paint a story for her fans.
The smartly produced music knows what to do to elicit repeat listens, a resident formula of Swift’s Big Machine Records. Most of the music builds up until the hooky, gloppy choruses hit hard, as most bridges slow the choruses with pianos before returning to fast tempo, as is the case in the feel-good cutesiness of “Mine.”
But the lyrical substance is obviously the shining star on the record. Her lyrics are why she can make her heartbreaking, dreamy, seven-minute “Dear John” actually work for Top 40 radio.
But of course, what’s a Taylor Swift album without a little true confession? Swift herself has admitted she writes her songs from an autobiographical point of view.
She introduced the country-fied, sonic ballad “Innocent” at the MTV Video Music Awards addressed to Kanye West, maturely and decidedly putting the whole 2009 awards debacle behind the both of them: “It’s OK and life is a tough crowd / 32 and still growing up now / who you are is not what you did / you’re still an innocent.”
With its squirmingly personal subject matter, the “Teardrops”/“Forever and Always” song of the album also rings out the dirty laundry between the “too young” Swift and John Mayer, who will probably “add [her] name to the long list of traitors who don’t understand.”
The title track’s playful lyrical content — a wedding crash to plead the groom leave with her instead especially deserves, and effortlessly gets, repeat listens.
Swift gently sings of dreaming to steal back the groom in the same G-major key as most of her songs amid playful guitar picks and hand claps.
And even better, she’s moved from 2 a.m. confessions and blue eyes to 2:30 a.m. and green eyes instead, respectively on string-laden “Back to December” (a possible ode to her short romance with “tan-skinned, big smiled” Taylor Lautner) and “Fearless” retread “Sparks Fly.”
Much like her career in both pop and country, Swift straddles the fence between taking the high road and trading jabs with her enemies on the high-octane songs “Mean” and “Better than Revenge.”
Swift’s spitfire anger shines through on the latter as she sings about how much revenge she’ll get on a girl “who’s better known for the things she does on the mattress,” and gets back at the haters on “Mean,” sharply putting more emphasis on “You” than “I” until the chorus, when she announces that she will “Be big enough so you can’t hit me / And all you’re gonna be is mean / Why you gotta be so mean?”
The 66-minute album gets knee-deep in clichés around the second half with “Haunted,” “Enchanted” and “Long Live,” but the difference between these songs and just another hollow pop starlet’s albums is that Swift writes with honesty and maturity.
Her childhood is markedly behind her (“I just realized everything I had is someday gonna be gone,” she says on “Never Grow Up”), but Swift has easily and fearlessly begun the transition to adulthood with “Speak Now,” and hopefully won’t make too many missteps in the next few years.
— Alex Ewald, journalism sophomore
Skating Polly
“Taking Over the World”
Self-released
Releases: Friday
6.8/10
If you’ve gotten sick of Taylor Swift’s relationship problems or Ke$ha’s obsession with being a hot mess, Skating Polly’s debut album, “Taking Over the World,” is a perfect antidote.
The adolescent riot-grrrl duo from Oklahoma City shows strong potential on its first album, which evokes the angst of grunge while including childlike lyrics about rainbows, dolls and living on Mars. It clocks in at just under 30 minutes; each song is a quick, compact burst of energetic rock ‘n’ roll.
The two singers trade off singing lead, with the other usually providing some kind of background vocals. Both members of the band have a distinctive vocal style. Kelli Mayo, the younger of the two, definitely sounds like more of a child, but she uses this as an asset rather than trying to hide it.
In the chorus of “Ira,” a song about a cool best friend, Mayo sounds like a pissed-off little kid, which is actually powerful. Peyton Suitor’s voice is more mature and more conventional, and she has adopted a sort of grungy wail.
“Taking Over the World” doesn’t include any songs that could really be classified as love songs, perhaps with the exception of “Number 4,” a sweet little number about going on a trip with someone. The total contrast to “Number 4” is the album closer, “When We’re Apart,” which is about how being apart from someone is much better than being with them. The anti-romance is refreshing.
In fact, Skating Polly covers a range of topics in their 14 tracks, like “Sammy Was a Psycho,” which is about a crazy person who has imaginary pets, or “I Am Sam,” which expresses a desire to be super-cool while paying homage to other musicians.
The instrumental parts leave something to be desired, but for a band in this vein, too much intricacy isn’t exactly expected. They switch from guitar to piano fairly frequently, and incorporate vocal rhythms and other noises into songs, which distracts from the somewhat rudimentary quality of their playing.
The album stands on its own merits, despite the ages of the band members. It is remarkable that a pair of pubescent girls displays the ambition, talent and confidence to venture into a scene that is dominated by adult males. But novelty should never outshine quality, and fortunately it does not on “Taking Over the World.”
Skating Polly could be the future of rock ‘n’ roll, or they could burn out before they can legally drink. Either way, this debut album is light, exciting, angsty and anything but predictable.
Skating Polly will release “Taking Over the World” at an album release show 7:30 p.m. Friday at Guestroom Records in Norman.
— Annika Larson, professional writing junior
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ragecage3 1 year, 6 months ago
Really, a 6.8 for Skating Polly? People like you are hurting the local scene, so please don't leave negative commentary for two girls who have more talent than most people your age. It is not very clever either to say they could possibly "burn out". Stick to writing reviews for bands that don't even write their own songs, or who you may give credit too because of a pitchfork review. No music is perfect, but robbing someone of integrity, even someone who is 10 or 15, respectively, is cowardly. If you can take the time to write a review like this, I hope you can see them live this Friday. But you probably won't because it seems you hate things that are cool. Have a great day ( :