November 2010
13 posts
6 tags
Gospel Music - Duettes →
This little EP is a bit of a half-truth. It’s not really Gospel Music but it is full of Duets. They all feature Owen Holmes, whose growl you might recognise from the Black Lips, accompanied at various times by members of Camera Obscura, The Magnetic Fields, Vivian Girls, SoKo and the erstwhile Darren Hayman. But you want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. Well, you probably can...
6 tags
El Guincho - Pop Negro →
Pop Negro, El Guincho’s second full album and follow-up to 2007’s celebrated Alegranza, comes swiftly on the heels of the Piratas de Sudamerica EP released in July. It’s quite a bewitching mix of tropicalia and dance music with a heavy dose of percussion particularly evident on album opener Bombay (which also has a brilliantly odd video to accompany it and mentions of a bizarre...
5 tags
Pomegranates - One Of Us →
Within a week of their first album release, they were signed and it’s no wonder. Their sound has an instant accomplished feel to it - layered, well-rounded, self-described “psychedelic dream rock”. A fairly classic indie rock sound, they separate themselves by passionate, positive lyrics and crafted, easy to listen to, but unique songs. One of Us is more of their original...
5 tags
Ferraby Lionheart - The Jack Of Hearts →
The second album from Ferraby Lionheart finds the LA singer-songwriter retreating back to his native Nashville and back to business with a slice of classic Americana. There are some nice finger-pluckin’ moments and sweet melodies throughout but, whilst the album is pretty warm throughout, it’s only luke-warm overall.
6 tags
Stereolab - Not Music →
Despite being on an indefinite hiatus for over a year and a half already, Stereolab have managed to find time to scrape together the leftovers from the sessions for their previous album, 2008’s Chemical Chords. Centred around the pulsating 10 minute epic Silver Sands, Not Music (their 13th album) is a solid and whimsical affair. Reheated leftovers perhaps, but fairly delicious nonetheless.
5 tags
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Expanded Edition) →
Put quite simply: if you don’t think Bitte Orca was the finest album of 2009 and one of the best of the last decade then I want you to unsubscribe from whatever medium you’re using to get your HotSpotMusic fix right now. Wait, okay, come back. I’ll give you another chance. Listen to this expanded edition in a quiet place - put your headphones on and just listen to it. Because...
5 tags
Weezer - Death To False Metal →
Death to False Metal is a collection of previously unreleased but well-produced songs and, depending on the way you count these things, is Weezer’s ninth album. It’s also their second released in the same week as we saw the simultaneous release of the Pinkerton Deluxe Edition. Releasing something in the same week as such a classic album is either a very bad idea or a very good one if...
4 tags
Plants and Animals - La La Land →
Fresh like the nature it hearkens, the second album from the Montreal band is one of the rare beasts that makes you bop and tap until you get out your ‘potentially best of 2010’ list. On tour soon with Frightened Rabbit, (picked for their thematically related name, one can only assume), the P&A crew has been praised for big live sound. Their records are, supposedly, recorded onto...
5 tags
Ray Davies - See My Friends →
One look at this album cover and you’re a little worried. Ray Davies and friends, eh? A couple of tracks in you’re left wondering how this abomination ever made it onto record. It is, for the most part, a truly horrible album and a self-indulgent blight on the Kinks back catalogue. You have Bruce Springsteen adding an unnecessary amount of grit to Better Things, Billy...
6 tags
Weezer - Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition) →
Pinkerton has to go down as one of my favourite albums. Ever. It’s the perfect combination of teenage catharsis and angst with simple, massively hook-laden power pop rock. Sadly at the time it got quite the critical pasting and so it was hastily shoved under the carpet as Rivers Cuomo proclaimed it a “hideous” album and went into recluse-mode. So needless to say a deluxe...
5 tags
The Sights - Most Of What Follows Is True →
The Sights are a garage-rock band from Detroit who have gone through more incarnations than Doctor Who, James Bond and Vishnu combined. Formed by Eddie Baranek in 1998, they finally found their sound and their opportunity with Are You Green? which rode the wave of the New Rock Revolution coming out of Motor City at the beginning of the 2000s. Despite consistently having record label issues,...
5 tags
Summer Camp - Young →
This London two-piece is Jeremy Warmsley (whose solo folk records are also worth a listen) and real-life girlfriend Elizabeth Sankey and together they’ve made almost the definition of a bedroom-record. Ultimately it’s a hugely enjoyable EP full of faux-nostalgia, definitely the theme of 2010’s crop - epitomised by the the dreamy lo-fi production, New Order-esque bassline and...
5 tags
Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern - Essex Arms →
Darren Hayman has been regarded as one of England’s Finest Songwriters™ in some circles for several years now. Drawing on the melodrama amongst the mundane, Essex Arms is his fifth solo album and second in a proposed trilogy about his home county. This one focuses on the countryside and musically it evolves into something more de-urbanised too, mixed with a softer, folkier palette provided...