Reviews

Deerhoof

Milkman

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Review Date: 2004-12-27

When essentially picking random albums to review without so much as sampling a song, the process can tend to be hit and miss. Thankfully for my ears the majority of my recent gambles have turned out to be hits. Some of those albums have worked their way into my cd collection. Deerhoof's latest album "Milkman" is not one of those albums. In fact making myself listen to this album enough times to be able to accurately review it with all the other great music I have been getting recently has been a task. However, I have now heard the album a few times and feel that my distaste for it isn't going away anytime soon.

The music is very bizarre and different. Sometimes than can be good a thing, but on this album it doesn't create a very appealing sound. The album is relatively cohesive, and the songs all flow decently well together but not a one of them is a really good song. The female vocalist has a decent enough voice, but the background music that goes along with the voice creates a disconnect. A lot of the backgrounds are aggressive, and have great guitar bringing to mind older Modest Mouse at times, but all the vocals are fluff and the lyrics are nearly impossible to make out. The background music is alternative, but the vocals..... sound like something I've heard at Asian bubble Tea restaurants throughout my life and further research has told me their lead singer is Japanese. I have played this album around a few people which I will do from time to time (to see if it's just me and others like it) they don't. My girlfriend left the room, my buddy Brandon looked at me like I was insane. But some people like this music, it is not the band's first effort. And I have read some rather positive reviews which make me scratch my head, it honestly seems like the only people who reviewed this album are people who already like the band from past efforts.

In my opinion by far the best song is "Milkman" which happens to be the opening track of the disc. The vocals work far better with the instruments on this song than on any others. Listening to this song gave me a reasonable amount of hope for this album, the quirky Japanese style vocals with the slow high pitched delivery by the singer is interesting, and very catchy. Listening to this song tends to get the "Me-milka-man" that she repeatedly says throughout the song stuck in my head. The backing band is more tranquil on this song, from time to time kicking it up a notch with some hard rock riffs, but mostly this song is low key allowing the vocals to come to the forefront. The singer never leaves the highest of high notes throughout the whole album, and that is the case here as well. I can in good faith recommend downloading this song, but anything else off this album you are on your own.

The only other song I am not going to delete after this review is called "Milking". This isn't a great tune, but it does have some appealing qualities. This song has a quicker pace than the other songs, it is almost like a surf song being done by this band. A Japanese surf song if you will. I have no idea what the singer says most of the time, but it sounds pleasant and the surf style electric guitar makes it all the more catchy. My girlfriend was asking how would I score the album, and I told her without vocals it would get a passing grade for sure. The band all seems to be talented musicians, I just don't think they work well as a unit.

But man oh man is this album filled with stinkers. "Desapareceré" is one of the worst songs on the album. This song has kinda an ambient flow to it, and from what I have read Deerhoof started experimenting with electronic on this album. A failed experiment if you asked me. For an ambient song to keep me it is going to need to have something special about it, but this song sounds more like my brother playing keyboard and the vocals are almost unlistenable. When the vocals stop and the boring ambient background takes over again, you are relieved but after about 30 seconds you start wanting the annoying vocals back.

The biggest failure on this album filled with them is "New Sneakers". The final track of this album. Although the one good aspect of this song is that you know the album is over when it is done. This song sounds like a midi file, and is filled with psychotic ramblings of the "Milkman" talking about wanting to kill people in a quiet whisper that you need to strain to here. This is afterall a concept album about a psychotic milkman..... which I only know from reading reviews as the album itself really doesn't explain it's concept very well.

I could go on about the songs I think do not work, but I am going to resist the urge. This album's run time is just a touch over 30 minutes which is good for me because it means I didn't have to waste a huge chunk of my life reviewing it, but is pathetic considering how much of this 30 minutes is low quality. This album is frustrating for a variety of reasons, but one of the most frustrating parts is that I can't manage to figure out how people could enjoy this. I read these good reviews and I wonder what the hell else are you listening to? How does a band like this have a career, and a following? This is something I'm likely to never figure out. My guess is that a lot of people liking this band are liking it is because it is different, and not because of merit. I don't play that game, but I'd be an idiot to pretend that some people do not. Amazon says people who like this band also like Fiery Furnaces and a bunch of other bands. But I think the Fiery Furnaces are a good comparison. Granted they are soooooooo much worse than the Fiery Furnaces, but the sound is definitely comparable. If you like innocent sounding music, that is very bizarre and rather ambitious then it won't hurt to download a few tracks. But I won't recommend it, this band to me is just wasting people's time. If you want to check more about this band out then click here.

Songs that you should download: "Milkman", "Milking"

Score: 4.25

It has to be a fail, when I can only recommend two songs on an 11 song album that is only 30 minutes to begin with.

- Dan