2008 Woodie Awards
CD review: Apples in Stereo
Eryk Salvaggio
Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: Style
Apples in Stereo
"New Magnetic Wonder"
Yep Rock / Simian
Feb. 6
Apples in Stereo frontman Rob Schneider seems dedicated to making music for the background of mid-70s children's shows. That's not a bad thing. Schneider's responsibility for a memorable track on the "Powerpuff Girls" soundtrack is the clue you need to describe the Apple's sugar-high indie rock. Add to that his status as co-founder of the legendary psych-rock revivalists the Elephant Six Recording Collective (home to bands such as Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control) and you can already hear every song on his newest release, "New Magnetic Wonder."
The album is all handclaps, stereophonic synthesizers and guitar riffs piled on top of more guitar riffs. A song like "Energy" could easily have been the music playing at a sock-hop on "Scooby Doo," had Hanna-Barbera ever bothered to acknowledge the existence of rock 'n' roll. The overall feel of the album is not merely cartoon music, but also Saturday morning music. You are clearly encouraged to hop around your room in pajamas while eating Apple Jacks.
That Schneider sings about flying through outer space helps, as does his penchant for explaining scientific concepts in as simple a matter as possible. Again, "Energy" comes to mind. Its lyrics are a children's introduction to physics coupled with a feel-good chorus about how "It's gonna be alright / We're gonna see the sunlight."
Compared to other Apples in Stereo records, this album is scattershot. While the bulk of the songs are firmly planted in Schneider's post-Elephant Six headspace, a few of them are callbacks to his mid-90s repertoire, such as the patchouli-soaked sound of "Sun is Out" or the album's micro-songs, experimental doodling that bridge the gaps between the fleshed-out pop songs on the record.
One hallmark of pop music that is clearly driving Schneider musically is the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album. Schneider strives for the same dense, experimental pop of the Beach Boys, only updated to the digital playgrounds of the new millennium. Some songs get so dense at points that you feel as if you could cut each layer in half and make two separate tracks. The band claims that they crashed their computer disks several times while mixing 96 layers worth of instruments for the song "Same Old Drag," a disappointingly over-produced '70s rock anthem that should have been let go.
With a few standouts, this record falls short of the best work Apples in Stereo have released. That said, the album is certainly capable of winning over new fans and pleasing those with somewhat low expectations. The album puts completely refined Apples in Stereo on display, showing every bit as much playfulness and complexity as the recent work of fellow neo-psych brethren, The Flaming Lips.
One very cool feature is a multimedia experiment on the disk, which allows listeners to explore Schneider's newly invented musical scale, the "Non-Pythagorean Music Scale," which apparently makes use of mathematics to create a non-standard scale that strays from western music's 12-tone scale. You can decide how gimmicky that gimmick actually is, but much like "New Magnetic Wonder" as a whole, it's useless and fun in equal measure.
"New Magnetic Wonder"
Yep Rock / Simian
Feb. 6
Apples in Stereo frontman Rob Schneider seems dedicated to making music for the background of mid-70s children's shows. That's not a bad thing. Schneider's responsibility for a memorable track on the "Powerpuff Girls" soundtrack is the clue you need to describe the Apple's sugar-high indie rock. Add to that his status as co-founder of the legendary psych-rock revivalists the Elephant Six Recording Collective (home to bands such as Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control) and you can already hear every song on his newest release, "New Magnetic Wonder."
The album is all handclaps, stereophonic synthesizers and guitar riffs piled on top of more guitar riffs. A song like "Energy" could easily have been the music playing at a sock-hop on "Scooby Doo," had Hanna-Barbera ever bothered to acknowledge the existence of rock 'n' roll. The overall feel of the album is not merely cartoon music, but also Saturday morning music. You are clearly encouraged to hop around your room in pajamas while eating Apple Jacks.
That Schneider sings about flying through outer space helps, as does his penchant for explaining scientific concepts in as simple a matter as possible. Again, "Energy" comes to mind. Its lyrics are a children's introduction to physics coupled with a feel-good chorus about how "It's gonna be alright / We're gonna see the sunlight."
Compared to other Apples in Stereo records, this album is scattershot. While the bulk of the songs are firmly planted in Schneider's post-Elephant Six headspace, a few of them are callbacks to his mid-90s repertoire, such as the patchouli-soaked sound of "Sun is Out" or the album's micro-songs, experimental doodling that bridge the gaps between the fleshed-out pop songs on the record.
One hallmark of pop music that is clearly driving Schneider musically is the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album. Schneider strives for the same dense, experimental pop of the Beach Boys, only updated to the digital playgrounds of the new millennium. Some songs get so dense at points that you feel as if you could cut each layer in half and make two separate tracks. The band claims that they crashed their computer disks several times while mixing 96 layers worth of instruments for the song "Same Old Drag," a disappointingly over-produced '70s rock anthem that should have been let go.
With a few standouts, this record falls short of the best work Apples in Stereo have released. That said, the album is certainly capable of winning over new fans and pleasing those with somewhat low expectations. The album puts completely refined Apples in Stereo on display, showing every bit as much playfulness and complexity as the recent work of fellow neo-psych brethren, The Flaming Lips.
One very cool feature is a multimedia experiment on the disk, which allows listeners to explore Schneider's newly invented musical scale, the "Non-Pythagorean Music Scale," which apparently makes use of mathematics to create a non-standard scale that strays from western music's 12-tone scale. You can decide how gimmicky that gimmick actually is, but much like "New Magnetic Wonder" as a whole, it's useless and fun in equal measure.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
elbeam
posted 3/01/07 @ 2:12 PM EST
I disagree!
"pleasing those with somewhat low expectations"
"New MAgnetic Wonder" is a pop tour-de-force!! It is extremely ambitious and expansive and stads up to repeated listens with ease and intrigue. (Continued…)
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