December 2011
15 posts
7 tags
Sin Fang - Summer Echoes →
Now seems to be the appropriate time to be sharing this record, given its title. The echo of the summer is heard louder than the echo of Sin Fang’s last album, Clangour, a delightfully scatty collection of ideas. This one is more focused, more of an album and more folky.
Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end...
5 tags
The Antlers - Burst Apart →
Another one where serious questions have to be asked about this writer’s taste and dedication as to why it wasn’t posted 6 months ago. Burst Apart is a sonically stretching follow-up to the cathartic Hospice (another of 2009’s sleeper hits) that elevates the themes to something less likely to make you bawl but soar instead. The epic opener I Don’t Want Love sets the...
7 tags
Beirut - The Rip Tide →
The Rip Tide is an excellent album that, much like the rest of Zach Condon’s discography is something of a slow burn (whilst being characteristically recognisable). Not sure why it took so long to get round to it here but with tracks like East Harlem and the title track, it’s strong enough to comfortably slot into the end of year lists.
Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not...
5 tags
The Middle East - I Want That You Are Always Happy →
I Want That You Are Always Happy is the full debut album of Australian septet, The Middle East. It follows their sumptuous EP (cleverly titled The Recordings of the Middle East) from last year and follows that up with more downbeat folk that doesn’t sound dissimilar from what the blender would sound like if you threw a Fleet Foxes CD in there with a Low Anthem record and a Jet minidisc....
5 tags
Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi →
Landing right at the beginning of this year, HotSpotMusic missed out on Anna Calvi. Despite having the unfortunate albatross of one of the BBC’s Sound of 2011 acts hanging round her neck (although this was perhaps offset by Brian Eno referring to her as the best thing since Patti Smith), her tightly composed debut is a grand work. There are definite elements of PJ Harvey but it is the...
5 tags
Bjork - Biophilia →
Trust Bjork to release her latest album not as a traditional record but as an ever unfolding series within an iPad app. Always at the forefront of music and innovation, Bjork’s album was beautiful and somewhat revolutionary. The music in it was less pioneering than the format perhaps, but that’s only because we set such high expectations on her. Sumptuously constructed and genre...
6 tags
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Hysterical →
Six years after Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!’s definitive, eponymous debut and four years after the disappointing, loud and nonsensical followup, Some Loud Thunder, came Hysterical. A marvellous collection of quirky indie pop that returns to the lighter side of CYHSY! whilst bringing a more well-rounded maturity to the track list.
Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed...
Real Estate - Days →
Much has been said of Real Estate’s ability to effectively simulate the halcyon days of the past. But in today’s nostalgia-addled, originality whirlpool that is no longer the key skill - what makes Days really work is the consistently enjoyable songwriting. Clearly a homage to early REM jangle as much as it is to the summer houses of their youth (and the guitar effects pedals that...
2 tags
Indie Animals Collection: The Eagle
Soaring above the rest of its indie brethren, the bold, majestic eagle doesn’t have time to think about such trivial things as itself or the complexities of being alone. It must fly to stay alive and it must kill to stay strong. And that is why, the eagle is the not-so-indie-animal.
Click here: Not-so-indie Animal: The Eagle
7 tags
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming →
A universally epic sound, gradually swelling songs in a rare-double length LP and the controversial use of a saxophone marked out M83’s return to the public sphere. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming could have been the album title for about 40% of all indie releases since the summer of 2010 but at least Anthony Gonzales’s effort tries to capture the urgency in the beginning of that...
1 tag
November Playlist
When you have such a classic, long-awaited album such as Smile released why would you even need any more music that month? Well, despite trying otherwise, a few more notable releases went up on HotSpotMusic including the bewitching debut effort from Still Corners, Atlas Sound’s Parallax and the sunniest record ever to be released in November, Summer Camp’s Welcome To Condale.
Click...
5 tags
Wild Beasts - Smother →
Wild Beasts are one of those bands who have very slowly progressed into being silently quite brilliant with each album. The British band’s sound has evolved from simple pop songs to rather complex and thoughtful compositions still backed up by the marvellous (and impressively replicable in a live setting) Jeff Buckley-style warble of lead singer Hayden Thorpe, only now with more nuance...
6 tags
Panda Bear - Tomboy →
Oh Panda Bear, how were you ever supposed to live up to expectations on Tomboy? The critical success of Person PItch weighed heavily and the seemingly-forever postponed recordings (due in part to the success of Merriweather Post Pavilion and Animal Collective’s touring) that led to the release of this album 4 years later didn’t help. Tomboy is certainly not a bad record, indeed...
5 tags
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know →
The inimitable Laura Marling’s third album was once again a marked progression from her previous work and surely solidifies her position not only as one of England’s brightest young talents in indie/folk but one her best songwriters too.
Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.
Original...
5 tags
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake →
Already the recipient of the Mercury Music Award this year and likely to be right up there in a lot of end of year lists, Polly Jean’s latest album is an epic barnstormer.
Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.
Original release date: 15 Feb 2011