About Carl Laamanen

Currently a graduate student in Texas pursuing a M.A. in English with a focus in Film/Media Studies, Carl Laamanen graduated from Grove City College in the wilderness of Western PA in May 2011 with a degree in Communication Studies and Spanish. Films like Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and essays like C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory have inspired Carl to undertake a never-ending quest to find the glory of God in art and popular culture, sometimes in the most unlikely places. He blogs about popular culture and issues of spirituality at Losing Sight of Land and you can follow along with his movie watching and general ramblings on twitter @carltastic77.

http://losingsightofland.wordpress.com

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Author Archive
    New Music: Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City
    Film/Music/TV / Music / Reviews

    New Music: Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City

    by Carl Laamanen on May 20, 2013 • 3 Comments

    Vampire Weekend has often been accused of making rather frivolous music that appeals mainly to hipsters, and, in many respects, that accusation is true of their first two albums, Vampire Weekend and Contra. Yet, I personally think that criticizing a band for writing about what they know, especially early in their career, has little merit. You never know when a band is going to take the next step and begin to touch on bigger ideas and struggles than, say, the use of the oxford comma or drinking horchata. On Modern Vampires of the City, the band retains its quirky, anything…

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    New Music: Phoenix’s Bankrupt!
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Phoenix’s Bankrupt!

    by Carl Laamanen on May 3, 2013 • 4 Comments

    French rock band Phoenix cemented their place in the indie scene in 2009 with the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, a catchy, immediate record that is one of my favorites from that year. A skillful blend of pop, indie rock, and electronic cavorting, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix set the bar high for Bankrupt!, Phoenix’s newest album. On Bankrupt!, the band remains enamored with producing dance-ready, saccharine pop music, but pushes even further into the realms of synthesizers and moody electronic soundscapes. The result is an album that is less immediately striking than Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, but has more going on underneath…

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    New Music: Josh Ritter’s The Beast in Its Tracks
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Josh Ritter’s The Beast in Its Tracks

    by Carl Laamanen on Mar 14, 2013 • 3 Comments

    On his newest album, The Beast in Its Tracks, Josh Ritter grapples with his recent divorce, yet none of the songs come off as overly bitter or spiteful. Among the heartbreak and pain, Ritter carves out a new beginning, treating the entire situation with poise and grace through his characteristically excellent lyrics. Musically, nothing here will surprise fans of the singer-songwriter’s previous work, although The Beast in Its Tracks is considerably sparser than Historical Conquests and feels more worn than albums like The Animal Years or So Runs the World Away. This approach gives the album an intimate feel befitting…

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    New Music: Frightened Rabbit’s Pedestrian Verse
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Frightened Rabbit’s Pedestrian Verse

    by Carl Laamanen on Feb 11, 2013 • 3 Comments

    I wake up excited every Tuesday, even if there are no albums I am particularly anticipating, because every Tuesday brings the chance of stumbling into a thrilling musical experience. I had been hearing some buzz about Frightened Rabbit’s newest album, Pedestrian Verse, so I made sure to give it one of my first listens last Tuesday. Then, I listened to it again, and by Tuesday night I was recommending it to everyone I knew. A relative newcomer to the Scottish band’s music (although, since Tuesday I have listened to all of their albums), I was floored. Pedestrian Verse sounds like…

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    New Music: Yo La Tengo’s Fade
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Yo La Tengo’s Fade

    by Carl Laamanen on Jan 24, 2013 • 5 Comments

    It’s fitting that Yo La Tengo, embarking on their 27th year of playing together, opens their newest album, Fade, with this chorus: “But nothing ever stays the same…so say good night to me and lose no more time resisting the flow.” For a band that has been around for almost three decades and was a vital part of indie rock’s explosion in the early and mid-90s, Yo La Tengo knows a little something about change, carving out a longevity nearly unheard of in the indie rock scene, and this experience and wisdom serves them well on Fade. I’ll spare you…

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    Top Ten Albums of 2012
    Music / Reviews / Year In Review

    Top Ten Albums of 2012

    by Carl Laamanen on Dec 27, 2012 • 8 Comments

    In 2012, I easily listened to more new music than I have in the past 3 or 4 years combined, due in large part to my writing music reviews for Mockingbird (although not as many as I would have liked—curse you grad school!) as well as my newfound Spotify addiction. The variety and scope of my listening this year made creating this list somewhat difficult, but I’ve been able to narrow down my list and I’m thrilled to share it with you. Of course, a number of my choices have found their way onto lists across the internet, but there…

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    New Music: Mumford and Sons’ Babel
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Mumford and Sons’ Babel

    by Carl Laamanen on Oct 11, 2012 • 6 Comments

    Everyone’s favorite British folk band, Mumford and Sons, and their latest album, Babel, have been a hot news item since the album was released a couple of weeks ago. Depending on who you ask, the band’s music is heartfelt and refreshing, beautifully expressing the human desire for love and grace or maudlin and mediocre, only created to prey on the sentimentality of the general population. Two recent articles on the band illustrate the variety of opinions that have been voiced about Babel and the obvious religious symbolism in the group’s music: the first, “Mumford & Sons Preaches to Masses”, from…

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    New Music: Derek Webb’s Ctrl
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Derek Webb’s Ctrl

    by Carl Laamanen on Aug 22, 2012 • 4 Comments

    “‘Ctrl’ is about one man’s desire for something he can’t have because it isn’t real, his journey pursuing it, and the costs of that journey.”-Derek Webb on Twitter

    As someone who began listening to Derek Webb in 2004, shortly after the release of his second album I See Things Upside Down, I can say with confidence that Ctrl marks yet another evolution in Webb’s music, drawing upon the best of his earlier acoustic work and the recent electronic tinkering of Stockholm Syndrome and Feedback. At least on the surface, Ctrl should avoid most of the controversy that tends to follow Webb…

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    New Music: Passion Pit’s Gossamer
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Passion Pit’s Gossamer

    by Carl Laamanen on Aug 9, 2012 • 3 Comments

    Note: My references to lead singer Michael Angelakos’ ongoing battle with mental illness come from this superb article from Pitchfork—Rite of Passion. Hearing his story gives Gossamer an added urgency and depth; be forewarned, however, the article is not for the faint of heart, as it deals quite frankly with these issues.  

    Maybe due to its frenzied electronic backdrop or lead singer Michael Angelakos’ piercing falsetto, Passion Pit’s inaugural 2009 album Manners didn’t seem like much more than another, albeit fantastic, indie-pop dance album at the time of its release. In fact, I remember dancing to several of the songs…

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    New Music: The Walkmen’s Heaven
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: The Walkmen’s Heaven

    by Carl Laamanen on Jul 5, 2012 • 2 Comments

    The title track on the newest Walkmen record Heaven, seems to suggest that heaven, at least in the realm of human relationships, does not come easy, placing the band on the periphery of the cheery perfection of love promised by many modern day pop songs. In keeping with the band’s encouragement on this track to “remember, remember, all we fight for,” their approach to their craft throughout the thirteen songs on Heaven, although bathed in a pop sheen, reveals a deep, mature take on the pop music genre tempered by age and experience. Heaven being my first encounter with The…

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    New Music: Beach House’s Bloom
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Beach House’s Bloom

    by Carl Laamanen on Jun 5, 2012 • No Comments

    Sometimes certain music, regardless of its lyrical content, manages to strike a transcendent, spiritual chord simply due to its ability to tap into what seems to be an otherworldly realm. Beach House’s fourth album, Bloom, much like Bon Iver’s self-titled album of last year, belongs in this category. Brimming with breathtaking melodies and harmonies, Bloom allows Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand to play off each other beautifully, his guitar and her voice intertwining to hoist their regretful, hopeful songs to the skies. The songs shimmer and shine, so much so that it’s occasionally difficult to crack the enigmatic exterior, yet…

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    New Music: The Shins’ Port of Morrow
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: The Shins’ Port of Morrow

    by Carl Laamanen on Apr 12, 2012 • No Comments

    I’ve always thought of The Shins’ music as summer music (probably due to their first album Oh, Inverted World), suited to driving down the highway with the windows rolled down, heading for the beach. Whether or not this association has merit, or if I just view all indie-pop in that light, the latest album from James Mercer and company, Port of Morrow, conjures up images of the spring more than the summer. By balancing dark tones with light flourishes, Port of Morrow creates a sense of rebirth and rejuvenation that comes with the budding of the trees and the green…

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    New Music: Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself

    by Carl Laamanen on Mar 26, 2012 • 1 Comment

    If I had to consolidate Break It Yourself down to its quintessential Andrew Bird moment, I would probably choose the bridge of “Danse Caribe”, its joyous violin and drums exclaiming Bird’s exuberance. Although it lacks his trademark whistling, “Danse Caribe” represents everything else I love about Bird’s music, exhibiting the quirkiness and sense of wonder that pervades his music. Musically, Break It Yourself is a fairly conventional Bird release, differing slightly from the darker tone of Armchair Apocrypha and the sprawl of Noble Beast, content to reside somewhere in the middle of those two albums. Lyrically, this may be one…

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    New Music: fun.’s Some Nights
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: fun.’s Some Nights

    by Carl Laamanen on Mar 15, 2012 • 5 Comments

    I first heard fun. a few years ago when a friend of mine put “The Gambler” from their debut album Aim and Ignite on a mix that he played as we drove back to school after a break. At the time I remember liking the song, but not pursuing the band’s work any further, which, in retrospect, was a mistake. A few weeks ago, I was alerted via tweet that fun. had made Aim and Ignite available for free in promotion of their soon-to-be-released album Some Nights. The marketing strategy worked, as I downloaded Aim and Ignite, was promptly blown away…

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    New Music: Craig Finn’s Clear Heart Full Eyes
    Music / Reviews

    New Music: Craig Finn’s Clear Heart Full Eyes

    by Carl Laamanen on Feb 7, 2012 • 2 Comments

    “I always say it’s never too late to be saved.” -Craig Finn (interview in Paste)

    To long time listeners of The Hold Steady, Finn’s statement about salvation, redemption and forgiveness will come as no surprise. Throughout The Hold Steady’s five albums Finn has managed to weave these themes into his rough and tumble stories of drugs, alcohol and partying, often with astonishing emotional force.  His debut solo album, Clear Heart Full Eyes, is less rowdy than the typical Hold Steady record, but Finn’s songs still tread the same spiritual territory as before.

    Musically, Clear Heart Full Eyes reminds me of The Hold…

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