Late for the party here, but so far much of what I’ve heard is quite good. Not sure yet that it grabs me the same way as High Violet or Boxer, in my opinion their best, but a few more spins will determine. Still strong stuff as always from them though :)

“I don’t feel it was so bad to use Boston to help put my name back on the map”
-Good ol’ angelic Amanda Palmer, milkin’ tragedy :) God bless her.

“Compounding the nagging sense of underachievement was a handful of songs that appeared to be rewrites of White Blood Cells tracks”- Hey Chris I don’t know if your review/evaluation was just comment baiting, but I must very politely and sincerely disagree with you. It IS their crowning achievement in every possible way. A darker more refined output then their previous two records. “White Blood Cells” is nearly just as good, but “Elephant” really fleshed out the highlights on “cells”. I think you have backwards logic in your review which is ok since you’re the writer and its subjective anyway. But I hope “Elephant” will grow on you. Its chock full of everything man-you have your darker edgy side, your exploratory blues fusion, your lovely ballads and I simply can’t agree that “Cells” ( and were you serious about Icky Thump?) is the superior record. Surely “Cells” is kind of the underdog and critics gleefully like to stand up for the underdog ( i.e., “Tim” vs “Let it Be” or In Utero” vs “Nevermind”) but let the music speak for itself. It dos and does so thrillingly in ways that endear “Elephant” to be a proper classic and one of the best ever made.

I meant Zeppelin not Clapton. Bah. Pardon the ignorance.

“For the most part, though, Wolf finds a brilliant young artist thrashing around, looking for ways out, wishing everyone would turn away.”-Tom, ‘brilliant young artist”? Are you high? I’ve always respected your writing but whoa nelly! Frank Ocean got the talent from the Odd Future pool.

Lets face facts-anybody who gleefully without abandon or concern throws around words like “fag” or “nigga” and peppers their elementary education intellect with f bombs galore, doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously, let alone called an “artist”. Frank Ocean, not a fan of his music, but I can at the very least respect him as a man and an artist. This shock clown is absurdly hateful in his lyrics, in his posturing, in his “professionalism” conduct and it amazes me that people don’t treat it as harmful. I’m thankful people like Tegan and Sara and others had the gumption to hold ground against the tasteless harbingers of not only recycled trite music, but also of snotty, nihilism and absurd entitlement. All respect should be lost for a person who throws around hateful derogatory rhetoric. In the real world, you talk like that, you lose your job, you ostracize yourself and duly so. Why do semi-well known shock-rappers think they deserve a free pass? And God bless grumpy Steve Albini for putting this tactless “rapper” and his entourage in their place. Steve may be a dick, but he’s got principle ( and talent). I only hope music journalism realizes that there is a clear line between voicing opinion, even snarky dissent ( Johnny Rotten) and peddling songs of necrophilia, bestiality, murder, homophobia, rape and all the other disgusting things that journalists inexplicably ignore because he’s a rap “star”. Sign O’ the times I guess.

pretty great list!

First comment dibs! Great stuff! ( the music, not the comment).

Nice band. Thank you Stereogum as I find alot of cool new bands through you guys. I like the grindy, meaty guitars and cosmic vocals. It reminds me of the Beatles on an acid trip.Very nice. Disturbing cover art though :(

I know in reading about the recording of this that their producer ( I think Gil Norton? Pardon the ignorance) actually steered them more towards a bare bones approach in songwriting and recording. I’d like to see this album be really power pop. They may be on a major, but they could pull an MGMT Congratulations. Wishful thinking ;)

Nice tune on second thought.

I upvoted you for that ;)

I used to respect Spin back in the day, but they give this album a critical drubbing and call it the “comeback nobody wanted”. Writer personal vendetta much? Bunch of bollocks.

http://www.spin.com/reviews/david-bowie-the-next-day-columbia-iso