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Oh, Sub Pop. For one of the best record labels in the world, your fans have pretty closed minds. You started out as the masters of innovation in the ‘80s, putting out Nirvana’s first record two years before they changed pop music and inventing indie-rock clichés before they came to define the best music of the 21^st century. Over time, you’ve become one of the best, although less innovative, labels around, producing great acts like Beach House and Avi Buffalo. So, yes, your status as a guitar-rock label has won you fans, critical love, and cred. What happens when you try to expand your horizons?

Well, if the reaction to Sub Pop’s newly-signed act Spoek Mathambo influences them, I wouldn’t say Sub Pop is going to try something new anytime soon. Their Youtube video for “Put Some Red on It,” the best song on Mathambo’s new record, has 69 likes and 55 dislikes. For a Youtube video, that’s the equivilant of a bomb. Commenters say it’s awful. Commenters say it’s out of tune. Commenters say it’s the worst thing Sub Pop has ever released. Commenters don’t know what they’re talking about.

To be fair, later Mathambo videos on the Sub Pop channel have higher ratings, but the initial reaction says a lot about indie culture. Why do the same people who praise Beach House for being different than the mainstream attack “Put Some Red on It” for being different? Father Creeper is an extremely well-done album, one that experiments with sounds in a way that other Sub Pop acts would never dare to. I do love plenty of Sub Pop bands, but they don’t exactly have a wide-range. Even Avi Buffalo, who I considered the best new group of 2010, tend to stick to a specific sound. Spoek Mathambo, meanwhile, does so many different things on Father Creeper that it seems like a career-spanning compilation album. Even pinning down a genre is tough. It’s, for the most part, an electro album, but it’s also rap, and there’s an absence of electronic drums. And there are guitars. Lots of guitars.

The opening track, “Kites,” is confusing. It’s rock, electro, and rap’s love child, and that love child is bi-polar. At five-minutes long, this track leaves a lot of room to grow on you during your first listen. I quickly became accustomed to the sound at around two-minutes in and, by the end of it, I’d already gotten to love the originality and sound of the song. It’s followed by “Venison Fingers” which, despite being shorter (two minutes and forty seconds), has a lot of dynamics that are easy to miss on your first listen.

Strange dynamics and mixing of styles can often turn out to be a mess. Like a lot of things in music, this type of experimentation can often seem like an attempt at tricking the audience, and getting them to see you as an innovator. Spoek Mathambo does it well, though, because his lyrical themes (often very dark and disturbing, as on the closing track, “Grave”) and vocals fit the bizarreness. This isn’t an album that is weird for the sake of weird; it’s weird because it wouldn’t work any way else. Every song has meaning and, for once, the sound is shaped by the meaning, and not the other way around.

Sub Pop will probably continue putting out some of the best guitar music around, and I applaud them for that. But, Father Creeper shows that they’re capable of more. Maybe, eventually, the next big thing will, once again, get their start at Sub Pop.

Bonnie Raitt is an interesting artist, albeit one I’ve often been critical of. She began recording in the early ‘70s, and became a critical darling with albums like Give It Up and Takin’ My Time. Over time, she became more commercially successful and, by 1990, she had an album at the top of the charts. Still, even with the critical acclaim and the public love, I’ve often been wary of Raitt. Her new album, however, may be the best she’s ever released.

On Slipstream, Raitt’s new record, she seems very comfortable, mixing country and blues as well as she ever has. Something’s different, though. I didn’t really understand what I found so appealing about this album until, while listening to it, I got into a conversation with my mom about Lucinda Williams. When we were done talking, I realized how much Slipstream sounds like Gravel Road-era Williams. When I made that comparison, the album made a lot more sense to me.

Raitt covers two Bob Dylan songs on Slipstream: “Million Miles” “Standing in the Doorway.” The Dylan covers are what everybody’s talking about, and for a good reason. Dylan covers don’t seem to be prevalent as much as they used to so, when somebody pulls one off, it’s magical. Not only do her covers sound good, though, but they’re also fitting. “Million Miles” and “Standing in the Doorway” were two highlights of Time Out of Mind, Dylan’s comeback album after years of disappointments. If Raitt didn’t know she was recording her best album in years (or, as far as I’m concerned, ever), she wouldn’t have picked such perfect choices.

Slipstream does have its flaws, though. Over-length is the biggest problem. Complaining about over-length is annoying, I know, but if a 12-track album is going to be 57 minutes long, it has to prove every one of those minutes worthwhile. Take Dr. John, who just put of the best album of his career (and the first perfect album of 2012). Whenever a song on that album went over the four minute mark, it felt like it deserved to. The songs on Slipstream too often feel like they’re over-staying their welcome, especially “Ain’t Gonna Let You Go,” the least memorable track on the album and one that, for some reason, is nearly six minutes long.

Still, when you get past the length, Slipstream is quite an enjoyable record. Raitt feels right at home, and her confidence with the material shows. Best track: “Marriage Made in Hollywood.”

Hello, VZ readers. I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately, and I can’t think of much for a full review at the moment. So, here is a Consumer Guide-esque column on some music that you should definitely check out (if you haven’t already). I hope you enjoy, and I’ll try to get a full review finished as soon as I can.

Great Albums:

Himanshu: Nehru Jackets

Das Racist is one of the best hip hop groups around today, with funny songs that are musical in a way that comedy music usually isn’t. Nehru Jackets is the first solo mix tape from member Heems, and damn is it good. Every song is memorable. My favorite: “It’s the Drug I’m Needing.” A- 

ScHoolboy Q: Habits & Contradictions

Picture Rick Ross, but with authenticity. That’s ScHoolboy Q, and he’s great. A-

The Men: Open Your Heart

Believe the hype. Open Your Heart is hardcore punk at its most listenable. Loud, pounding, at times arsty, and yet still tuneful, it’s the hardest album I’ve heard all year, and it never lets up... except on “Candy,” a strange change of pace that is more influenced by college rock than hardcore punk. With multiple listens, it reveals itself to be the album’s most memorable song. A-

The Menzingers: On the Impossible Past

If Open Your Heart represents the arty side of punk, On the Impossible Past is the punk side of punk. The Menzingers are basically Rise Against with better songs. I doubt Rise Against has released a song as good as the opening track here, anyway. Punk isn’t dead. A

Todd Snider: Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables

I’ve said plenty about this album already, but it deserves a few more words. Give it a listen. A

Great Singles:

Bruce Springsteen: “We Take Care of Our Own”

The Wall Street Movement was just asking for a Springsteen song to be its anthem, and they have a whole album of songs to choose. I hope it’s this one. A-

Delta Spirit: “California”

Delta Spirit’s whole album is wonderful, and “California” is the stand-out moment. A

Django Django: “Default”

My favorite song of the year, so far. Although the album it comes from is just alright, “Default” is an indie-pop masterpiece, pulling together everything great about the genre together into three minutes of ear-candy. A+

Jack White: “Love Interruption”

Blunderbuss is an album I cannot wait to be released, being the huge Jack White fan that I am. This single got me even more hyped, though. Releasing this under his own name was a perfect idea because, listening to this song, it doesn’t sound like The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, or The Dead Weather. It sounds like the man who made all of those bands great, stripped down. It’s jazzy and addictive. A 

The Magnetic Fields: “Andrew in Drag”

I reviewed the new Magnetic Fields album about a few weeks ago, and I kicked myself for not mentioning the album’s best track. So, here it is: “Andrew in Drag,” the funniest, catchiest, Merritt-est song on the album. A

Bonuses:

2:54: “Scarlett”

The EP this song is attached to isn’t special, but this song is very riot-grrrlish in the best way possible. Eerie, melodic, and very good. A

Dum Dum Girls: “Last Caress”

This Misfits cover is actually from 2010, but I just heard it for the first time …Wow. A+

Matthew Dear: Headcage EP

I like it more than Burial’s Kindred EP. A-

No band in the history of rock has come up with as many consecutive winners as Sonic Youth. Sure, there have been better bands, but the ones that come to mind were either short lived (The Velvet Underground) or suffered a drop in quality (The Rolling Stones). Sonic Youth, however, have released thirteen incredible albums in a row, over the course of twenty-three years. (They also don’t seem to have aged at all… is it possible that they are involved in the occult?) They began their career as an indistinctive no-wave band but, with the release of Evol, they managed to find the perfect mix of melody and noise. Their last album, The Eternal, was among the best releases of 2009, proving that it is possible for a group to seem fresh that late in their career. Certainly they would keep going, right?

Well, last year was marked by two sad events for anybody who loves alternative rock: R.E.M. broke up, and SY’s husband-wife duo Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon separated. The band has expressed doubt over whether they’ll ever record another album again. With R.E.M, it’s a bit easier to take. R.E.M. hasn’t released a really memorable album since New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and it’s very possible that Michael Stipe could put out a better solo album than Collapse into Now. With Sonic Youth, though, it just seems sad. Is it possible that the group that dominated the ‘80s, the ‘90s, and the ‘00s might not record again?

Even sadder is the fact that, judging by what the band members have released, they’re nowhere near as good solo as they are together. Thurston Moore’s Demolished Thoughts, released last year, was an acoustic album that, despite being pretty, didn’t have many great songs attached to it. Kim Gordon (my favorite woman in music, ever) has another band called Free Kitten, a group that is like Wings to Sonic Youth’s Beatles. Meanwhile, Lee Ranaldo has often gone the experimental route, with spoken word and free-jazz influenced noise albums. His latest album, Between the Times & the Tides, is less experimental, however. In fact, very little of the noise that Sonic Youth is known for shows here. It’s really quite bland.

But, it’s more than bland. I didn’t care for Demolished Thoughts (a lot of people liked it), but I listened to it before Thurston and Kim split. While listening to Demolished Thoughts, I wasn’t thinking about it as the only option. It was just a solo album and, if it wasn’t really my taste, I could always wait for Sonic Youth’s next album. Here, any Sonic Youth fan concerned about the group’s future will listen wondering, what if this is all we have? And, in that case, Between the Times & the Tides is depressing as hell. It’s not awful; it’s not even bad, really. But, if this is what we have left, then it’s just not enough. The band needs each other.

But, breakups are tough, and it’s easy to see why ex-spouses would be wary about being in a band together. So, if Sonic Youth never records together again, this is what we’ve got. Between the Times & the Tides is a soft album (like Demolished Thoughts) that is more about sound than songs. In fact, the songs rarely lift off, typically staying in one area. When I played The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s first album for a friend, he said that, although he liked indie music, it rarely climaxed and tended to stay at a nice but sterile level. I disagree with that perception when applied to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart but, when applied here, I can see it. This album is nice, but that’s all it is.

It does harbor one excellent song, though: “Lost,” which does everything correctly, while staying true to the album’s concept. It even has a chorus! So, I’d say that Sonic Youth fans should definitely listen to the album, if only for that one track. Who knows? You may even like the whole thing. Other critics seem to.