Indie Lates with Arcade Fire, Car Seat Headrest, The Horrors, Pulp, Stereolab

For this week's rapid-fire reviews, I'm taking a look at 5 records from indie and alternative bands that would have, at one point in their career, been MUST-COVER acts. For one reason or another all of these bands who have material I adore under their belt slipped through the cracks earlier this year, so let's catch up. 

Pink Elephant - Arcade Fire

I can be a little bit picky about production, I think everyone knows that at this point. But one thing I normally don't do it let that fact completely dictate my feelings on an album, but I just can't fucking tolerate Pink Elephant. This shift to a more intimate style at the hands of Arcade Fire's dual vocalists had potential, but god, they should have handed the production off to someone who knew what they were doing. Instead of raw in an intimate and vulnerable way, these songs are raw in a grating, outright painful way that clashes with the obvious ambitions of the songwriting. 

Take the single "Year Of The Snake" as a good example. I don't actually hate the songwriting here, and you wouldn't have to change too much about it to make a song that I like. But from a production standpoint, the song sounds literally empty, like pieces of it just weren't finished, and as a result, there's all this bloated negative space. But even more than the blanket bad production that plagues this album, there is a specific problem with the drum machines. Not only are the sounds they've programmed terrible, but they're worked into the mix in a terrible way. So many of these drums are so obnoxiously clanky and, for some reason, right in the forefront of the mix that it makes everything completely unbearable. 

The worst example of this is the title track, which again you wouldn't have to do THAT much to for me to enjoy it. But once you notice the lumpy fucking drum machine it becomes impossible to notice anything else. It's a problem at several other points on the record, but the very worst example is on the deep cut "Circle Of Trust," which already goes on too long anyway. I guess the record isn't completely without its silver linings. The formatting of the album serves up multiple shorter, more instrumentally focused cuts, a few of which are okay. I also find myself enjoying the song "Ride Or Die," which has these playful circular little gender-bent lyrical traps and a really sweet sentiment. But the moments of relief on this record are few and far between. I try not to judge this specific outing too harshly within the band's greater discography, as its purpose seems to be as much practical as creative. But with over a decade between today and the last time they released a record I really enjoyed, it's safe to wonder if the Arcade Fire of old is still in there anymore. 3/10

The Scholars - Car Seat Headrest

Out of the 5 records I'm talking about today, this is the one I really wanted to review. I fully intended on covering it as I absolutely adore several Car Seat Headrest records from the 2010s, and I was more fond of their previous record, 2020's Making A Door Less Open, than a lot of other critics. I also went into the album fully expecting to enjoy it on the back of some great singles. The 11-minute "Gethsemane" led the way, and I absolutely love it. Despite its bulky length, there's no shortage of memorable refrains, and every time it revs up in intensity, I'm totally on the edge of my seat. The winding composition plays out wonderfully, and it's still probably my favorite song on the album. 

Opener "CCF" served as the second single, and I like it quite a bit as well. It takes its time building up for sure, but once the soaring high points kick in, it makes everything worth it with its anthemic youthfulness. Finally, there was "The Catastrophe." It's probably the most fun song on the album, with propulsive energy and raw vocals. Despite that, it still manages to soar like a heartland rock ballad at points. The best of the deep cuts is the bulk, nearly 20-minute-long "Planet Desperation. While it's absolutely the dorkiest moment on the record, it contains some of its best crescendos and manages to use its colossal runtime pretty well, like so many CSH songs in the past also have. 

But that track is also indicative of my biggest issue with the record, its reliance on extremely complicated lore. Don't get me wrong, I tried to get a grasp on the record thematically but it doesn't come easily. More importantly, there are several points where it feels like you HAVE to be following along in the liner notes to even know which character is talking and what's going on in several songs. That's the case with the record's weakest moment, "Reality." The track's 11 minutes aren't handled nearly as well as the other bulky songs on the record, and I don't think Ethan is nearly as compelling of a vocalist as Will. Combining that with lower energy moments like "Lady Gay Approximately," and you have a tracklist with multiple lulls for anyone not deeply invested in the details of its convoluted plot. 

Ultimately, the music of The Scholars is still pretty compelling. Will Toledo and company still understand just how to make something sound so youthful, dramatic, and transcendent. But what's lost in translation is some of the emotion that typically comes with it thematically. The personal nature of many of the band's best tracks feels far less impactful in a world that seems one shade away from fairy tale. So while all of the group's fundamentals are still intact, the special qualities that elevated them to one of the best contemporary indie rock bands around don't shine through. 6.5/10

Night Life - The Horrors

I've been looking forward to a new album from The Horrors for a LONG time. After establishing themselves as one of the defining post-punk bands of the 2000s with their brilliant Primary Colours, the band shifted their focus to adapting different throwback rock sounds. While they didn't achieve the same critical success on following records, I personally like all of their records quite a bit. It's been a full 8 years since they released V, with only a pair of EPs to serve as a buffer. The highlight is 2021's Lout, which saw them shifting their tone into pummeling industrial music. Unfortunately, rather than embrace that sound for a full record, Night Life is mostly an indulgence into the sound of dark wave, and one that does nothing to separate itself from a crowded field of contemporaries within the genre. 

At the very least, the album had a few singles I liked quite a bit in the lead-up. "Trial By Fire" has an absolutely ripping chorus that pummels you into the ground, and the whole song is undercut with an instrumental that sounds both massive and urgent. My favorite single and favorite song on the album is "More Than Life." It sports a great combination of the band's soaring 80s rock ambitions with their brooding new darkwave aesthetic, and it feels like it's been stuck in my head all year. There's also one deep cut I enjoy called "The Feeling Is Gone." It features some pretty viscerally emotional lyrics about isolation and emptiness that perfectly match the dark space and murmuring bass of the instrumental. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the record is extremely boring. It's such a surprise because across all their different sounds, I can't say The Horrors have ever been a band to bore me. But on Night Life they just don't have that much to say, but they've got way too much time to say it. That's best exemplified by the one-two-punch of "Ariel" and "Silent Sister" that kicks the record off. The two songs represent nearly 10 minutes of music all on their own, and despite repeated listens, I can't recall a single thing about them. This is also the case of the single "Lotus Eater," and the final single "The Silence That Remains" is only slightly better as it begs for a performance with more bravado. 

Despite a highlight here and there, Night Life is probably the weakest Horrors album to date. While dark wave is a style that grafts really seamlessly onto their sound, they don't have that much to say or ambitions to push the genre to new places. As a result, it's mostly the moments where they interpolate the intensity of their industrial era or the soaring crescendos of their early 2010s synth-driven records that succeed. The mixed final result is the definition of an inessential listen from a band who has always felt so essential. 5/10

More - Pulp

Of all the artists on this list, Pulp is the one I thought had the best chance of translating smoothly into a new arc of their career. Jarvis Cocker's horny, slanted poetry has always felt jaded beyond his years and I imagined him growing into it as he aged, so the idea of a new Pulp record after 24 years was pretty exciting to me. That was even more the case after hearing “Spike Island,” the record's absolutely hilarious and irresistible lead single. I never thought Pulp would drop an instant summer playlist classic as a lead single, but the song has been drilled into my head for weeks. 

It also serves as the opener and starts the record off strong alongside “Tina.” It's a classic half-spoken, narrative-driven Pulp cut which bounces between sincere and sarcastic very fluidly. “Farmers Market” is similarly clever with the groceries and farmers market motifs laced throughout, even if you have to approach it in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way to fully appreciate. Finally, I also enjoyed the closing track, “A Sunset,” quite a bit. It has a sweeping instrumental palette with a gorgeous crescendo that gives way to a gentle conclusion to the whole album. 

Unfortunately, there's another side to this record that isn't nearly as clever. The first taste of this came on the single “Got To Have Love,” which has this deeply naked sentimentality I'm not sure Jarvis Cocker can come off as earnest enough to pull off. That's in addition to the fact that it has a flat, mostly repetitive hook that I also don't really care for. Occasionally, the record goes in the other way and serves up something too silly. “Grown Ups” is one of the biggest missed jokes on the record, and the result is a song that's just flat out awkward. What's infinitely worse is “My Sex,” where Jarvis FULLY embraces his aging sexuality and makes fans listen to him whimper and moan his way through the song in a way I find extraordinarily unpleasant. 

I don't mean to come off as pointlessly negative; there's certainly plenty to like about More. In its moments of genius, the band sounds as fresh as ever but with a worldliness injected into their signature alt-rockisms. But it's an inconsistent bunch of tracks that occasionally fail to even play to their strengths. What results is a record destined to sport some new favorites for long-time fans, but one that won't go down with nearly the same affection as the best work of their past. 6/10

Instant Holograms On Metal Film - Stereolab

Coming in at 15 years between studio albums, weirdo electro-pop aficionados Stereolab have always been a personal favorite of mine, even if they've been dormant for the entire time I've been paying close attention to music. That's why it was so exciting to hear their return with this album's lead single “Aerial Troubles,” which instantly reminded me why I'm such a fan with its lively instrumentation and irresistible refrains. That excitement grew even more after the third single, “Transmuted Matter,” which grows on me every time I hear it. I love the wandering basslines, playful vocal layering, and new alterations and additions to keep it fresh across 4 minutes. 

There are also deep cuts from the record I liked quite a bit, including both parts of “If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream” and “Immortal Hands.” The latter in particular nails its transition between a sweeter and gentler first half and a much dancier but still quite sentimental outro. But that leads me to my biggest issue with the album as a whole, its inter-song transitions. The 13 songs that make up Instant Holograms read more like 20 tracks stuffed together occasionally at random.

That creates moments like “Melodie Is A Wound,” the second single. It has an excellent first half with a somehow much more indulgent and uninteresting second half that serves as a lengthy instrumental outro for no discernible reason. The very worst example is probably “Esemplastic Creeping Eruption,” whose final minute is a completely unnecessary interlude. There's also the issue of a song like “Flashes From Everywhere,” which is one of the only points on the album where the pure pop sentimentalities just get a little too overbearing for the band's weirdo tongue-and-cheek style. 

Instant Holograms On Metal Film may not go down as an instant classic like some of Stereolab's records in the past, but that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile comeback. Despite some weird compositional choices and a runtime that could have been slimmed down, within the folds are the characteristics that have always made the band so unique. Their strange impulse to take the sugariest refrain you can imagine and warp it into their avant-pop landscape remains irresistible. As unique as ever, Stereolab serve up a dose of their defining sound that's a can't miss for anyone who has ever enjoyed it in the past. 7/10