The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 5A
A Whale of
an album
By KRISTYN ACHO
DailyArts Writer
It's hard for critics not to
roll their eyes at Noah and The
Whale's ste-
reotypically * *
hip persona -
its name pays Noah and
homage to the Whale
the cult indie
flick "The The First Days
Squid and the of Spring
Whale" and Vertigo
the band is
composed of
eccentric musicians who look
like they just walked off the
set of the latest Wes Anderson
film.
Anticipation for the band's
new album The First Days of
Spring has left quintessential
indie music junkies foaming
at the mouth. But for everyone
else, the band's appearance
gives off a cutesy, quirky image
that's pretty much a turn-off
from the start.
But once listeners get past
its pretentious exterior, they
will really appreciate what
Noah and The Whale has to
offer: an epic album complete
with some of the most original
folk ballads the music industry
has seen in a long time. A band
with such an endearingly deli-
cate quality and retro charm
has not come on the scene
since cult favorite Belle and
Sebastian.
For lead vocalist Charlie
Fink, The First Days of Spring
signifies new beginnings. Fink
recently broke up with his long-
time girlfriend and frequent
collaborator, and he uses the
record to voice every emotion
he has ever had regarding the
relationship.
Track by track, Fink looks
back to find out where it all
went wrong and map out his
road to recovery. The album
leaves listeners feeling like
they are eavesdropping on a
private therapy session as Fink
pours his heart out in every
song. Behind the meticulously
orchestrated sound lies Fink's
sincere vocals - nothing is
sugar-coated and his pain is
palpable. The juxtaposition
of raw emotion and beautiful
melodies is what makes this
album's theme of unrequited
love so damn heartbreaking.
The record begins with the
title track, "The First Days of
Spring." Fink's healing process
unravels itself as the methodi-
cal drum beats, somber guitar
riffs andsoftviolins creep their
way into harmony before surg-
ing into a climax of orchestral
percussion. Tom Hobden, the
band's talented violinist and
its resident virtuoso, arranged
the strings on the album. His
exquisite work brings the track
to a culmination that captures
Fink's fragility as he mourn-
fully whispers his lyrics over
painful violin screeches.
"Our Window" is the album's
most achingly sorrowful bal-
lad. It marks the end of a long,
drawn-out break up in which
the two lovers have been up all
night. The song captures the
moment where each person
said what he or she had to say,
but no one is ready for the rela-
tionship to be over quite yet.
The brisk taps of the keyboard
bring life into the track as Fink
croons, "The stars are shin-
ing through our window / and
it's been awhile since I stared
at the stars." The lines bring
a glimpse of hope to an other-
wise tragic track.
In order to balance the
album's somber demeanor, the
band strategically places uplift-
ing melodies throughout the
A turning-point
album for Noah
and the Whale.
tracks. In "Love of An Orches-
tra," a church choir sings an
encouraging melody, carry-
ing Fink out of his remorseful
gloom with joyous lyrics like
"Thests no need for despair /
I'm carrying all the love of an
orchestra."
With its new album, Noah
and The Whale reinvents itself
- the British band, formerly
known for composing standard
indie-pop, proves itself capa-
ble of producing complex and
wistful ballads. The First Days
of Spring's encouraging tone is
defined in the lyric: "You know
in a year it's gonna be better,
you know in a year I'm gonna
be happy." While each track
may be infused with sorrow,
there is always an overriding
sense of hope.
Get a show on HBO. Then you can eat as many hot dogs as these hip dudes.
Freakalicious 'Chords
While kooky, the Conchords'
new disc can't match the show
By LEAH BURGIN
DailyArts Writer
Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, co-
creators of Flight of the Con-
chords (the band) and "Flight ***
of the Conchords" (the HBO
TV show) are geniuses. They've Flight of the
developed unique comedic Conchords
personas rooted in their abil-
ity to use music as a humorous 1 Told You i
tool. With deadpan delivery, Was Freaky
disarming charm and an ador- Sup Pop
able kookiness, McKenzie and
Clement sing about aspects of their fictionalized
lives as struggling New Zealand artists living in
New York City.
Ten seconds into I Told You I Was Freaky, this
comedic talent is obvious.
Crafty and clever as ever, the duo maintains
its comedic angle on the its new album. Musi-
cally speaking, however, Freaky is an awkward
combination of several novelty songs and aslew
of synthpop tracks. It is unbalanced and often
annoyingly repetitive. Many of the tracks cannot
stand squarely ontheir own - separated from the
context of the TV show, the songs lose their zing.
"Sugalumps," a watered-down parody of the
Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps," is unimpressive in
the musical sense. The bleep-bloopy synth loops
are flat and uninteresting, and the song's musical
development is almost non-existent.
Onthe TVshow, however, McKenzie and Clem-
ent'sunabashedconfidencetoboastthattheir"sug-
alumps" are "sweet and white and highly refined"
- combined with the duo's fearless dance moves
- gives "Sugalumps" its life. While it is hilarious
to watch these sexually harmless men spread their
legs on TV to showcase the "family jewelry," this
ha-ha moment is missing on the album.
The less organic songs on Freaky are more
often the ones lost in translation from TV to
album. It's as if the spare synthy tracks need the
duo's TV antics to patch up the gaping musical
holes. When Flight of the Conchords upgraded
from their customary folky acoustics to a heavy
use of drum machines, synthesizers and tape
loops, something was bungled in the mix.
Still~ therp's enpugh pf the gnod ol' Conchords
on the new album. "Hurt Feelings" emphasizes the
classic naivety of McKenzie and Clement's char-
acters -listeners will recognize the mini-piano
sound from first season classic "If You're into It,"
and find comfort in its familiar tinkles. "Rambling
Through the Avenues of Time" and "Carol Brown"
similarly showcase McKenzie and Clement at their
best. The songs work as songs (although the video
for "Hurt Feelings" is hilarious) and display the
duo's genuine musical and lyrical talent.
"We're Both In Love With a Sexy Lady" is an
R&B upgrade of "Jenny," a rambling acoustic
number from McKenzie and Clement's stand-up
act. Like its spiritual predecessor, "Sexy Lady"
is a Conchords specialty - it tells a story in real
time, and intentionally has no structure. The sub-
tle craftwork injected into the track reflects the
talent of the 'Chords. Lyrically constructed, but
performed with a delicate act of improvisation,
"Sexy Lady" is one of the album's besttracks.
I Told You I Was Freaky demonstrates that
Flight of the Conchords comes as a package:
Without McKenzie and Clement's spot-on facial
expressions and an understanding of their TV
characters, it can be hard to appreciate the duo's
talent. But for ardent followers of the band, the
album functions as a portable version of Con-
chorop comedy - the gpps qre largely forgiven
because McKenzie and Clement and their every
hilarious action and expression are tattooed on
our brains.
MTV's new bro-down falls face-down
NOAI IAND THVE WII[AIL
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By ANT MITCHELL
Daily Arts Writer
Watching "MTV's Ultimate Park-
our Challenge" is like being invited
to spend an hour with a bunch of
stoned street ath-
letes as they talk **
about the mean-
ing of life and MTV's
jump over stuff. Utimate
In fact, the show
isn't "like" that at Parkour
all, it is that. The Caln
first 20 minutes of
each episode are Thursdays
attention-worthy atla p.m.
because of the MTV
impressive feats
and good humor, but beyond that,
the show's merits are hard to see.
"Parkour Challenge" follows a
competition for a grand prize of
$10,000. It brings together eight
famous Parkour athletes from all
over the world, including Daniel Ila-
baca, King David, Tim "Livewire"
Shieff, Michael Turner and Brian
Orosco, most of whom became
famous for filming YouTube videos
of their stunts.
Parkour is a sport that combines
break dancing, rock climbing and
jumping over urban landscapes.
Unlike rock climbing, however,
there are no proper handholds
and basic "jumps" are often made
between buildings. The sport uses
obstacles like walls, buildings, con-
crete blocks, bars and fences as
objects around, on orover which
contenders climb or jump to show
off their skills.
In "Parkour Challenge," the only
descriptive words anyone seems to
use are "killer" and "pure," and the
show is hosted by gttys with nick-
names like "Streetbike Tommy."
Sitting on the edge of a roof, mood-
ily looking off into the distance, one
competitor tries deciding whether
or not to attempt jumping from a
roof onto a ladder after having failed
once before. The scene is accompa-
nied by loud and inspiring music
accompanying this pointlessly long
shot, and one might think that these
dramatic tricks are setting up a
brave second attempt. Wrong. The
music and contemplation were just
demonstrating how "deep" a sport
Parkour is.
This sense of "depth" is a con-
stant theme throughout the show.
In between "pure moves" and "kill-
er style," contestants say things like
"This obstacle course symbolizes
life" and "it truly just is about the
philosophy. It really is just a way
of life." There's only so many ways
they can babble on about how Park-
our "defines them" in an hourbefore
it gets to be nauseating in ways
beyond description.
While the constant bro-ishness
of "Parkour Challenge" is annoying,
it has the strange effect of creat-
ing an oddly emotional and unusu-
ally supportive group dynamic for
a cash-prize competition. Literally
only one nasty comment was made
about another Parkour athlete in
the pilot - an athlete was called
out for not being in the proper men-
tal state - and even that exchange
Where 'killer' is a
deep compliment.
wasn't all that nasty. An overabun-
dance of clapping, hugging, back
slapping, hand shaking and general
concern for others is strategically
confusing but admittedly somewhat
refreshing.
There are certainly some cool
tricks to watch, and the eight main
athletes can jump from building to
building in considerably amusing
ways. At times, however, the tricks
and athletes just aren't impressive
enough. Michael Turner especially
seemed only to be in the group to
add an inspirational element - he'd
snapped his leg in half and still
returned to compete.Yes, his resolve
is impressive, but hearing about it
every time he stumbles or changes
his plans to account for the old inju-
ry is enough to beg the question: Was
he worth the price of the plane tick-
et? After he's taken by ambulance
to the hospital for a cut finger (yes,
that really happened), it's hard not to
calculate how much money could be
added to the grand prize if he hadn't
been added to the roster.
"Parkour Challenge" certainly
isn't the worst thing MTV has come
up with, and on mute it is possible to
genuinely enjoy some of the cooler
parts of the show - it's impossible
not tobe impressed by seeing some-
one do a handstand on the edge of
a 30-foot drop. That said, the show
would improve vastly if interviews
were almost entirely cut out, along
with the repeated footage of injured
competitors being driven to the hos-
pital by ambulance. There are better
ways to serve up a show like this,
and "Parkour Challenge" doesn't
quite make it.
ARTS IN BRIEF
Film,
Tired, vapid vampires
"Cirque du Freak:
The Vampire's Assistant"
At Quality 16 and Showcase
Universal
"Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assis-
tant" is a cheesy, lifeless by-product of the
"Twilight"-inspired vampire craze.
The film starts out as a mildly comedic
horror film, but gets increasingly annoying as'
it mixes teen angst with vampires and freaks.
The characters are little more than prototypi-
cal tween-age cutouts. Darren (Chris Mas-
soglia, "The Hole") lives a life so perfect it's
hard not to want something really terrible to
happen to him. His best friend Steve (Josh
Hutcherson,"Winged Creatures") is thetypi-
cal suburban bad b who wears black and
throws rocks at w dows when he's in the
mood to do something particularly horrible.
In a moment of rebellion, Steve convinces
Darren to attend a freak show, and somehow
Darren ends up stealing a vampire's deadly
"performing spider." After it bites and poi-
sons Steve, Darren agrees to become a half-
vampire to save his friend.
"The Vampire's Assistant" never gets
freaky, which is too bad because the freaks
are really the best part of the movie. The
Snake Boy (Patrick Fugit, "Horsemen"), the
bearded lady (Salma Hayek, "Across the Uni-
verse") and the lady who can regenerate body
parts (Jane Krakowski, "30 Rock") are all
wonderfully gross and creepy but their story
takes a backseat to the convoluted plotline.
In addition to the central narrative, there
are numerous subplots about evil vampires,
the relationship between Darren and Steve
as well as stories concerning bloodsucker
mythology. It's all just too much to keep
track of, and the overstuffed storyline does
nothing to cover up for the film's mode of
dull-toothed schlock.
EMIYBOUDREAU
LSA students, if you're concerned about flu season this
year, be sure to visit the LSA website. You can
self-report your illness and simultaneously inform your
instructors and advisor as well as read up on University
efforts to curtail the spread of H1N1 and other
potential campus outbreaks.
www.isa.umich.edu