78. No Age - Nouns (2008)

No Age's big breakout record jettisons pretty much everything that was interesting about them and puts in its place a somewhat generic, Sebadoh-ish 90s indie rock. Everything is fuzzy and tinny and loud, and while the songs are catchy enough while they're on there's nothing close to the previous record's "Every Artist Needs a Tragedy" or "Neck Escaper". "Things I Did When I Was Dead" is the one track that combines No Age's punk and ambient tendencies effectively, but the rest is just the same old catchy punk rock. The drums sound like a drum machine and the lo-fi-ness, rather than opening up any new creative avenues, just seems to hem the band in--the songwriting isn't good enough to make a virtue of the style, like Pavement's was, and the poor quality recording just sounds like an affectation and not something that really means much of anything. Pavement had the good sense to foreground the bass in their early records, which was interesting in such a lo-fi record; this is just fuzzy guitar and desultory vocals.

MY RATING: 4.8

No Age - "Teen Creeps"

136. No Age - Weirdo Rippers (2007)

This is weird. Punk and ambient music? How the hell could this work? Well, it doesn't, not really; what this album ends up being is a bunch of catchy punk tracks interspersed with noodly ambient passages, and the whole thing is over in a half hour. It doesn't gel together perfectly (or really at all), but that doesn't mean I don't like it. I admire this thing, mostly because it has the guts to go for such a weird-ass idea full-tilt without caring much if it makes sense or fits together or whatever. These are two styles at complete opposite ends of the musical spectrum, in terms of energy--hardcore punk, and Aphex Twin circa Selected Ambient Works Vol.II ambient stuff. "Every Artist Needs a Tragedy" is probably the highlight here, with its minute or two of white noise and feedback followed up by a massive guitar riff and yelling and static. Most of the other tracks follow the same pattern, although the majority of the songs are shorter and do much the same thing as the first track in even less time. "Boy Void" is super-catchy punk rock, "Loosen This Job" is scratchy noises and indistinct vocals. This album exists in a weird little cul-de-sac into which few other bands are probably going to want to venture (and for good reason--it really doesn't make any sense) but I like it anyway.

MY RATING: 7.7

No Age - "Neck Escaper"