it's so so hard to write short record reviews. obviously, you have to not say everything you think, and not qualify everything you say. but, as you might have noticed, i'm not very good at that. hyphenation helps cheat at word count.

Yo La Tengo, Summer Sun
(Matador, 2003)
Rating: 8/10

Trendsetters, romantics, countrymen, and hey, everybody: rejoice! The latest (twelfth? who’s counting?) long-playing love letter to the world from Hoboken-noise-addicts-turned-worlds-greatest-band is here - and just in time for Summer! (Never mind the April snowshowers that cascade as I write this – it will be here soon.) Of course this is a Summer record, though it’s not quite the surf-fuzz beach party you might expect. This sun doesn’t beam so unabashedly; it just glimmers and glows and keeps you warm all night. Their quietest offering to date (not even a "Cherry Chapstick" to break up the calm), this sounds exactly, but exactly, like a Yo La Tengo record. Not to say it’s prefab (though isn’t that drum loop on "Nothing But You and Me" left over from "Saturday"?), but it resides comfortably within a familiar blueprint: gentle bossas, spoken-word slowburners, gossamer pop ("Little Eyes" may be the simplest, best thing here) and the inevitable 10-minute space-out jam; plus an instrumental or two (getting funky on "Georgia vs. Yo La Tengo") and of course a cover (Georgia takes on Big Star). Though not as consistently brilliant as their last two albums (titles too long to fit here, sorry), Summer Sun is at least as brilliantly consistent. In the face of a wistful sorrow that still pervades the lyrics, this is the sound of contentment.

Erlend Øye, Unrest
(Astralwerks, 2003)
Rating: 7.5/10

Kaada, Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time
(Ipecac, 2003)
Rating: 6/10

Apparently, Scandinavian good sense dictates that the Norse invasion come in waves. Well, Swedepop has died down for the nonce, and the shimmery Icelandic thing has more or less run its course, so it’s up to the Norwegians to concoct a New Nordic Norm. They seem to be presenting less of a unified front: from Beckish orch-popster Sondre Lerche to chillout mavens Röyksopp to the strummy folk-poetry of the Kings of Convenience.

If this tenuous "scene" has a figurehead, it might be (ex?-)King Erlend Øye, who had a vocal hand in the latter two projects, and has demonstrated aptitude in acoustic and electronic milieux. His solo debut finds him collaborating with electro-notables on a record of "pedigreed synthpop", Postal-Service-style – though Øye traveled the globe (Uddevalla; Barcelona; Shelton, CT) rather than trusting the international mails. The result is marvelously smooth: despite highlights – nintendo-ish workout "Athlete," house-funky "The Talk," Prefuse 73’s think-piece "Every Party" – it’s most notable for a retro-fresh consistency. Synthpop is truly a universal language.

Norwegian-grammy-nominated (!?) Kaada takes a more idiosyncratic, original approach to giddy electronica, cutting-and-pasting percussion breaks, string swells, horn lines, and soulful vocals into an edgy exhilarating stew. That might not sound too original – but as with any stew it’s all about flavor, and Kaada’s concoctions have a distinct one: evocatively but imprecisely nostalgic (shades of everything from doo-wop to Stax/Volt soul – the vocals are especially effective); bemused but neither goofy nor ironical. Somewhat reminiscent of Fatboy Slim’s last one (though ironically this is the only non-Astralwerks release I’ve mentioned) but far more structurally complex and sonically varied. His creativity doesn’t always pan out, but his talent is evident.