Take “Hard Liquor”, the opening track. It’s more energetic than anything was on Tremors, with a beat and chorus that get stuck on your head for days. (I also love the “tremor” beat at the beginning of the track; it’s an acknowledgement of where SOHN is coming from even while he’s revealing where he’s going).

“Conrad”, on the other hand, melds this energy with a blues and soul rhythm that captures the style du jour without betraying SOHN’s sensibilities. That reveals a trend throughout the album: while SOHN’s electronic sound is always more soothing and restrained than some of his contemporaries, he’s not afraid to embrace trends.

At the same time, though, not everything here is trendy. “Proof” sounds like old-school Justin Timberlake melded with some of Radiohead’s ambitious stylings, a sound that certainly won’t be popular with many. Similarly, “Falling” feels like the most percussive track on Rennen. It reminds me so much of what Radiohead was doing with In Rainbows, or what Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor were playing with on The Social Network soundtrack.

For me, these tracks are the ones where SOHN eschews trends and embraces what he loves. They are, without a doubt, the best tracks on the record for my taste. But that’s not to say the rest of the record is bad; arguably, the presence of catchy and mainstream tracks like “Hard Liquor” make the experimentation of “Falling” so much sweeter.

The album’s pacing is impeccable. If there’s one thing that SOHN’s inarguably gotten better at, it’s pacing his record. It was hard to listen to Tremors on a loop. Each track was good, but the record’s overall pacing was fatiguing. With Rennen, that’s not the case.
I know many will disagree — and a lot of other critics already have — but I think Rennen is, taken as a whole, a better record than Tremors. It’s more accessible and has a stronger pacing, and SOHN is able to maintain his impeccable production and style even while he embraces more mainstream sounds.

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I always felt that Zaba was the first record in its post-rock style to challenge Alt-J’s dominance in this ill-defined genre. On How to be a Human Being, Glass Animals surpass Alt-J to become, in my mind, one of the most inventive post-rock, alt-electronic groups out there.

How to Be a Human Being begs the question: How does one classify music like this? The pop structures, rock energy, and electronic sounds create a bizarre — but appealing — mix that seems eminently malleable and mineable for a new generation of musicians. How to Be a Human Being is a record of constant imagination.

Even people who don’t like Glass Animals couldn’t accuse them of being unoriginal. Every track on the record sounds different — compare “Pork Soda” to “Take a Slice”, for example. The band rarely, if ever, repeats themselves.

How to Be a Human Being has hints of everything from Justin Timberlake (“Season 2 Episode 3”) to blues rock (“Poplar St.”). It’s one of the most diverse records of the year. It’s a record that’s a result of touring, and all the new life experience that entails.

But at the same time as the band is rapidly — and aggressively — expanding their sound, they’re also doing something unexpected. How to Be a Human Being strips back the production slightly, dressing down the tracks compared to Zaba.

It’s a subtle effect, but it works nonetheless: despite Glass Animals’ continued experimentation, it never feels like they’re anything less than approachable.

To be clear: the production doesn’t sound bad, not even remotely. It’s still a well-made, well-executed record. But the production allows Glass Animals to make experimental, unusual music without ever sacrificing its listen-ability.

All that being said, it’s hard to discuss How to Be a Human Being right now. It’s the musical equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back: a sequel whose language is so different from what came before that it will take time to judge and understand it properly. I imagine we won’t fully understand the magnitude of this record until we can judge it within the full spectrum of Glass Animals’ complete discography.

That’s a good thing. The Empire Strikes Back was panned when it was released, but now many regard it as one of the best films ever made. Clearly, How to Be a Human Being is a tremendous record. It has the all the feelings of a masterpiece. But I don’t know if it’s a masterpiece yet. It’s too early to call it. (If it’s not a masterpiece, then it’s certainly evidence that Glass Animals is capable of making one.)

For the time being, How to Be a Human Being is an impeccable record. It demands your attention, and your repeated listening. And I can’t wait to talk about it a decade from now.

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This attitude is still a big part of their new record, Summer 08. It’s a record that feels like it’s defying many of the genre’s practitioners. It continues down a similar path to Love Letters, which was a huge success (in my books) because it embraced psychedelic rock within the electronic genre.

Summer 08 takes the band closer to electronic pop than ever before, embracing funk on the way, but it doesn’t feel like it’s a last-ditch effort to “go mainstream.” Actually, while the band feels more mainstream despite themselves, they still don’t seem concerned with following genre conventions.

I love the opening track: Back Together is a spastic, alt-rock inspired, Chromeo-like song that’ll get you tapping your feet. Even some of the more “pop” tracks, like the relatively low-key Hang Me Out To Dry, feels like it’s got just enough of an off-beat to it to defy mainstream convention and embrace Metronomy’s odd side.

Summer Jam feels like it’s been lifted straight from corny ’80s movies, even while it slowly spirals out and into itself again before it closes the record. Night Owl sounds inspired by the indie bands du jour, and Metronomy manages to make it their own despite doing their best Arcade Fire impression.

It’s hard to make logical, reasoned arguments for what makes Summer 08 such a good record. I’m struggling for words, because all I can say is that I have an involuntary emotional attachment to the record. I just like it, and it’s as simple as that. There’s no real criticism I can levy at it, because something about it stirs my soul and I enjoy it. If, by recommending it, you can have a modicum of the joy I get from the record, then I think I’ve done my job. Summer 08 is, in my eyes, a great record with sterling production, great ideas, and some fantastic ideas. Metronomy still surprises me every time.

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Take Wall F——k. This is an exceptionally thick track, with more layers than I could think to count, and not a single spoken word. It’s an assault, sonically, but it doesn’t feel aggressive so much as it just feels deep and bass-filled. Yes, there’s lots of music like it, but there’s so little that feels so inventive in its light touches.

There’s a reason Flume is such a success. If he weren’t so good at adding pop inflection to big remixes, he’d be making intellectual electronic ambience like Tycho. It’s Streten’s ability to marry both ambience and production value that makes him such a wunderkind.

If there’s ever a rough spot on Skin, it’s some of the rap contributors that appear throughout. These tracks are often weaker than the others, if only because the rappers can’t hold a candle to Flume’s production.

But despite that, it’s hard not to recommend those tracks. Smoke & Retribution is far from my favourite track on the record, but it’s hard not to talk about it because the production work is so wildly inventive. The beat Flume has come up with is almost completely alien, totally different from what we’re used to hearing.

I could point to every track on the record and say something great about it. Skin is the sort of album that’s worth listening to from beginning to end, with good headphones on, and enjoying while knowing as little as possible about it. The pleasant surprises are part of the journey. And the final track is… Well, Beck guests on it.

With that in mind, I want to leave you to listen to Skin without me spoiling some of its best moments. If you like electronic music, you’ll love Flume’s Skin. It’s one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

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In a lot of ways, Tender Buttons feels like an experiment in minimalism. While not out of place today, critics observed at the time that it felt like certain tracks were missing pieces. Now, we recognize this sound as a sort of minimalist shoe-gazing dream pop, but Tender Buttons feels like it was a psychedelic tour-de-force ten years ahead of its time.

The vocals on this record are in a particularly special place: thanks to minimalist production and a lack of other in-your-face instrumentation, the vocals really stand out. And their airy nature, but post-punk surroundings mean that this can fit in well next to Girlpool or Beach House.

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The album’s success lies in the group’s ability to perform atmospheric tracks within a synthetic, electronic genre. Each track fits a tone and atmosphere, and no two sound the same. What the band lacks in production they make up for with rich instrumentation that gives their lo-fi vocal work places to stretch out.

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Tremors, SOHN’s debut record, proves that he has a voice all of his own and has something unique to add to the music scene.

Of all the tracks on the record, you might have heard The Wheel before, which is a fantastic way to introduce SOHN’s (if you don’t mind skipping the somewhat-less-exciting Tempest). SOHN’s voice, like the voices of those he’s produced, is enchanting and fairytale-like, making most of his music extremely listenable. Bloodflows breaks down into some intoxicating beats, and Artifice is darkly catchy — I could see it really taking off.

With artists like SOHN — the producers behind today’s popular music — it’s always hard to separate them from the music they make. With SOHN, it’s harder to separate his style from his influences. The music he produces is differnet enough that you rarely listen to Tremors and think about how much he sounds like Lana Del Ray.

But you do listen to the record and note where he sounds like Radiohead. It’s less clear when somebody else is performing the music he produces and writes, but his voice clearly emulates his heroes.

Despite that, compared to the rest of the industry, SOHN’s debut feels remarkable fresh. The vibe is good, and the beats are great, and the melodies are even better. This first album from SOHN is a unique and fun listen, and one that continually surprises from end to end. Here’s hoping that Christopher Taylor can keep up this streak of great tunes well into his career.

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It feels like Metronomy is playing with their audience, though: Monstrous is where the album takes off. And Love Letters is where it just explodes. Once Love Letters takes off, it really just goes from there and keeps going. Boy Racers is just fundamentally interesting, and it reminds me of some of the electronic trance music that was hitting the scene around 1998 or 1999.

None of that is to say that Metronomy are interested in pursuing the brand of pop that got them so many accolades before. They’re taking the Radiohead route and reacting to their success by running in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. They’ve traded in the precision of their earlier picture-perfect pop records for a warmer, more natural approach that feels more organic and (dare I say it?) traditional.

By the time the album ends with Never Wanted, you, well, never want it to end. So Love Letters is a slow burner, one that starts with its toes and works its way up, and that’s okay. Structurally, it reminds me of The Beatles’s Revolver — and that’s not a complaint.

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