4) The War on Drugs
“Red Eyes” — Lost in the Dream

Much has been made of singer Adam Granduciel’s electrifying “Wooooo!” on “Red Eyes”, some labeling it the most spontaneous moment in 2014 indie rock. But if you listen carefully, he actually repeats the battle cry several times on Lost in the Dream, proving that even the most instinctual outbursts (like the rest of the The War on Drugs’ excellent third album) are far more thought out and anguished over than they first appear. This is meat and potatoes indie rock — with impenetrable vocals, reverb-laden guitar hooks, and truck loads of anguish all impeccably filtered through the unlikely vacuum of expansive, 70’s-style stadium rock.  The title track and “Eyes to the Wind” are the morose, wide screen portraits of disillusionment that Ryan Adams’ been pining for since Gold, while the drum machines and eerie synths of “Disappearing” invest Fleetwood Mac’s coked-out melodies with a Pet Shop Boys-style vacancy.

Oxymoron abounds on Lost in the Dream — saxophones and harmonicas mingling with dye-cast electronics, warm guitar chords pitted against soul-crushing ennui, and a spacious production hollowing out space for Jason’s intimate misery.  The first three tracks sound marvelous but describe crushing anxiety (“Under the Pressure”), sleep deprivation (“Red Eyes”), and, quite literally, “Suffering.”  But emotional honesty is what makes this emptiness stick. The War on Drugs walk the fine line between artifice and impulse with fake-it-till-you-make-it earnestness, confirming that catharsis, even when well-calculated and besieged by despair, can still be real.

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3) St. Vincent
“Digital Witness” — St. Vincent

St. Vincent still bears the cracked mannequin smile that made its way into the jittery trance of Annie Clark’s last album Strange Mercy, but it’s bolstered by taut rhythms that ooze with cocksure swagger. “Huey Newton” is driven by a slippery snare beat as Clark’s coy tenor conjures images of impressionistic dread — feelings transcribed on flashcards, knives, and ketchup blood.  Unexpectedly, the song steers down a different corridor, giving way to celestial, prog-rock organs before detonating into a gargantuan fuzz riff that belies Clark menacing, axe-wielding prowess and her slew of inspirations, from Black Sabbath to Bowie to Billy Corgan.  “Entombed in a shrine/ Of zeroes and ones” she bellows as an unholy choir rises up to surround her — it’s one of many wow moments on St Vincent that capture technology’s encroachment on human existence.

“Digital Witness” is another. Propelled by Stax horns and P-funk beats, it’s lively, frantic, and fiendishly addictive — much like the dystopia it promises.  Clark observes: “People turn the TV on/ It looks just like a window,” but the question remains a window to what — the outside world or hell? Thoreau once presciently chastised our insatiable need for the latest word: “Hardly a man takes a half-hour’s nap…but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks ‘What’s the news?'” On “Digital Witness” Clark takes the quandary to its logical, terrifying extreme — she simply stops sleeping. Essential human needs give way to human wants. The inescapable clutter of life presses in upon us. There’s a sensation of ice and heat on St. Vincent — Clark captures cold, computerized unease even while making your palms sweat.

(composed from excerpts of February 23rd review)

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2) Run the Jewels
“Oh My Darling (Don’t Cry)” — Run the Jewels 2

Run the Jewels 2 is an augmentation of its predecessor in all ways. El-P’s 808 beats are thicker, doper, and just plain nastier. Killer Mike’s liquid flow has grown even sharper and more incensed.  With laser-guided missile accuracy, the pair pinpoint abuses of power from all fronts— police, preachers, politicians — and attack it with a vitriol that’s only intensified by its cerebral edge. It might be the ultimate feel good story of 2014 if only Run the Jewels 2 didn’t make you feel so utterly outraged. “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)” co-ops Rage’s Zack De La Rocha into a stinging indictment of racial injustices, “Lie,Cheat, and Steal” demonizes our country’s rulers, and “Oh My Darling (Don’t Cry)” delivers the most scalding diss of the decade (“You can all run naked backwards through a field of dicks.”) Run the Jewels accomplish something by rapping than rioting could not — they inspire and transform rage into a constructive dialogue. Speaking after his onstage break down, Killer Mike said on CNN: “Those feelings are what invigorate you the next day to fight the better fight.”

“You feelin’ history being made!” goes the opening diatribe on “Jeopardy,” and we had no idea how soon Killer Mike’s prophecy would come to pass. But he did. Remember, RTJ2 was written and recorded before America’s race issues reached a flash point — not because Killer Mike and El-P were guessing, but because they knew something wicked this way was coming. Like the oppressors it denounces, Run the Jewels 2 puts your mouth to the curb and stomps. Since 2013, the burning question has been how haven’t you heard Run The Jewels, but from here on out, it will be another — how the hell can you afford not to?

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