June 2010
24 posts
2 tags
Best Albums of 2010 So Far…
Half way through the year means a time for retrospection (and a serious slowdown in the number of album releases). I think I’ve said this for each of the last few years, but this has been a pretty awesome year in music so far. You just gotta love the music baby. Some records have lived up to the hype, some bands have returned to the live arena like they’ve never been away and some...
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The Morning Benders - Big Echo →
The Morning Benders second album finally gets a European release to go alongside their European tour. It’s exceedingly appropriately named as an album that lets it’s influences (Neutral Milk Hotel, the Shins, Weezer) take such centre stage. But it also works on a secondary level, that of describing the swathes of echo and reverb evident on this album - a deliberate...
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Light Pollution - Apparitions →
Chicago’s pretty hot these days - not just the Illinois summer but a slew of great new acts emanating from the Second City. The latest of these, Light Pollution, have created a dazzling, shimmering record influenced by modern artists such as Grizzly Bear or Animal Collective. The record dims a little towards the end as the luminescent shine of ingenuity and originality begins to fade into...
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Club 8 - The People's Record →
Something of a stalwart of the Swedish indie scene, Club 8 have released eight albums together since 1996 debut Nouvelle. The People’s Record has all the elements of Swedish indie pop we’ve become happily accustomed too but is driven by rhythms from the west coast of Africa, particularly evident in the distinctive percussion. It would be cruel to suggest they’ve gone all...
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Kele - The Boxer →
Kele Okereke, henceforth known by his solitary forename which we can only hope will be further shortened to just a symbol sometime soon, releases his first solo album this week and with it makes a foray into the electronic music that is consistently hinted at in Bloc Party’s bolder moments. Lead single Tenderoni is a pounding and euphoric club-ready anthem for the summer, whilst other...
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Forest City Lovers - Haunting Moon Sinking →
Quite a product of the times, one could say, but in any way that’s true, they are a product of what we all love about these times - one might enjoy listening to this whilst baking or hammering together a birdhouse made of recycled materials. Some tracks have a close Regina Spektor sound, but with a distinctly different attitude. Pleasant instrumentals, Kat Burns’ smooth, clear...
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Here We Go Magic - Pigeons →
Here we are, new album! …and it’s a good one. Psychedelic, rocky, danceable melodies with some fuzzifying distortion for the feeling of a happy drunken night through maybe a neon forest that’s also your friend’s apartment and you’re all playing cards, but they’re not normal cards, they’re just bright colors with a sort of sadness about them. Dream...
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Donovan - Sunshine Superman →
Sunday Sermons
Here’s a guy you probably haven’t encountered in awhile. Well, it’s time to go back to 1966. As you pass evenings laying on the floor, smoke floating over the shag carpet with this record spinning not too far away, Lyndon Johnson sends more troops to Vietnam, John Lennon makes bold claims about the Beatles’ popularity, the Cultural Revolution begins in...
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Villagers - Becoming A Jackal →
Becoming a Jackal is the remarkable work of young Conor O’Brien from Dublin. The 11 tracks on this debut album are sumptuously composed and constructed around a varying scene of charming pop concepts. His fragile vocal style adds an interesting layer onto eloquent narratives all through the record. Somewhat reminiscent of his namesake Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes with the orchestral...
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The Drums - The Drums →
Having waited for The Drums debut for a few months (since their promising 2009 debut: Summertime EP), it’s not entirely clear that the finished product is really worth the wait. Of all the blog-popular bands to surface this year, whose sound has been characterised by fun and innocent lyrics baked into a simple and warm retro-beach aesthetic, The Drums seem to have created a particularly...
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Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions →
Pitchfork may continue to slate Deer Tick but I continue to enjoy them - spuured on by an incredible live performance as part of Primavera Club last December. The music is raw Americana with a definite sense of realism and irony. The bluesy, ramshackle nature of the first two albums is stripped back a bit here leaving a more wholesome, honest record. It’s vintage stuff and, whilst certain...
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Berlin Festival: Playlist
Another awesome looking festival coming up, I’ve put together a little playlist for all those lucky enough to be heading to Berlin in September. Artists playing include LCD Soundsystem, Caribou, Soulwax, Blood Red Shoes, Herman Dune, Seabear and more…
Click here: Berlin Festival 2010
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Teenage Fanclub - Shadows →
What can you really say when reviewing a new Teenage Fanclub record? These guys know how to write great pop songs. While the energy has decreased somewhat in the last twenty years, the songwriting remains strong. The lyrics on display are more knowing now but they still retain a sentimental heart - listen to Baby Lee as an example. It’s impressive the way they can make the line ...
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Teenage Fanclub - A Catholic Education →
Sunday Sermons…
It’s now twenty years since A Catholic Education, an album which launched Teenage Fanclub into a music scene full of grunge and shoegaze abstractors. Behind a layer of distortion and heavy metal guitars (as the first and seventh tracks proclaim) notionally present, there’s still a sense of melody and songwriting craft that would be brought more into focus...
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Wild Nothing - Gemini →
“Our lips won’t last forever and that’s exactly why, I’d rather live in dreams and I’d rather die” Jack Tatum (the one-man Wild Nothing) sings on album opener, Live in Dreams. It’s a dreamy and impassioned aesthetic that continues throughout the entire album. Sort of like staring up at the clouds all day whilst using a beaten-up Walkman as a pillow....
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Konono No. 1 - Assume Crash Position →
To mark the start of the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa, today’s record is Assume Crash Position by Konono No. 1 from Congo (who are, in fact, not represented at the tournament but nevermind). Its frenetic rhythms are driven by the underlying drums but garnished with the playful sounds of the likembe - a miniature thumb piano which has been hooked up to an amplifier. It’s...
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Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils →
Digging pretty deep into the coastal theme that has been threatening to erode indie band naming of late, another Brooklyn-based act appear under the moniker Beach Fossils. Bearing all the hallmarks of the music you’d expect a band with such a name to have, distinctive chiming guitars accompanied by lassez-faire delivery, this album is certainly a product of its time. However, the echo-y...
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Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today →
Ariel Pink’s latest effort, and first for 4AD, has a very glossy sheen to it. Moving from the bedroom to the studio can often be a tricky move for some artists but with Before Today Ariel Pink remembers to bring the tunes with him. It sounds like something I’d imagine the Miami Vice soundtrack to be if the show were entirely recast in the 60s. But that’s not to say that this...
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Stornoway - Beachcomber's Windowsill →
Before you make a decision on Stornoway, you have to travel with them through the twists and turns of Beachcomber’s Windowsill. On the first track, Zorbing, the vocals are shaken out of their normalcy by a range of other sounds - comically low background vocals, unexpected horn sections and unassuming lyrics. Pet Sounds this is not… throwaway indie pop (twisted through a strange 80s...
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Band of Horses - Infinite Arms →
Very much a more-of-the-same effort from the South-Carolina-based trio. Warm americana, carefully constructed harmonies and an overwhelming sense of being underwhelmed. The sharp, emotional drive and occasional hippie-meanderings of their debut Everything All The Time seems a little lost on this, their third full-lengther, and whilst it’s a nice record that will happily play in the...
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Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be →
Sunday Sermons
Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be is not particularly old, but already in danger of being swept under by the perpetual flood of awesome new music. There are so many fantastic tracks on this album. “Baby”, “Angelika”, “Rats”, “Brindo” to name a few. Devendra’s mix of serious rock, folk and operatic vocals just plain...
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The Acorn - No Ghost →
This five-man flannel fest plays a very pleasant repertoire of easily liked, earthy tunes - let’s call it Lumberjack crooner-forest-indie. The faster sounds and their more heavy percussion make you second check that you don’t already know, like and own The Acorn’s music - it is familiar, but more like the face of an old friend than a face in the crowd. They are what John Updike...
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The Divine Comedy - Bang Goes The Knighthod →
Neil Hannon has always managed to keep The Divine Comedy quintessentially British with amusing tales of life on the Isles. And with the amusingly-named Bang Goes The Knighthood (you never know Neil, hang in there) that trend continues. There’s the scathing The Complete Banker which doesn’t need innuendo to get his message across, the title track full of tales of woe and an ode to...
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May Playlist
I’m gonna go ahead and say that May was a pretty darn good month. The new and incredibly awesome LCD Soundsystem record dropped, alongside other indie stalwarts such as The New Pornographers, The National and Broken Social Scene.
Some good new discoveries too in the shape of Illinois rockers Smith Westerns, sweet harmonies from Pearly Gate Music and Center Of The Universe’s crazy...