April 2011
12 posts
6 tags
tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L →
Merrill Garbus’ second album is a triumphantly cacophonous concept - a CERN-style super-collider of styles thrusting charged instruments and ideas around at crazy speeds in an attempt to find a mythical musical boson. It’s instantaneously joyously uplifting (see Bizness), soulful (see Doorstep) and tribal (see My Country). Album of the year? Maybe it’s too early to judge but...
6 tags
Tennis - Cape Dory →
Not content to go back to the 80s for their golden times like many of their peers, Tennis jump a generation to dutifully recreate the sound of your parents’ high school dance. Doo-bee-doo-ing their way through the album are Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley (another married couple getting their jangle on) whose low-resolution view into the past includes Shangri-La melodies and sand-addled...
5 tags
Dan Le Sac ft Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance →
The Thames Estuary duo return with another blast of fast paced beats following up the excellent Angles. The production is notably slicker than the first album and it really gives Pip the clarity to make his points which have become notably more political but manages to keep optimistic. Stake A Claim is an anthemic rabble rouser while Great Britain bemoans British knife crime. As on Angles, the...
5 tags
Four Quartets - The Paragon of Animals →
I’ve been playing this album virtually non-stop for the last week or so since I found it - it’s like Elliott Smith never left. The Paragon of Animals is a stunning album by Bristol native Rob Sharples whose whispered, delicate vocals bear more than a passing resemblance to Smith. However, his multi-instrumental skill and ability to construct layered, complex, heartfelt songs should see...
4 tags
James Vincent McMorrow - Early In The Morning →
The fact that the majority of Early In The Morning was recorded in a house in the middle of the woods in a blast of creativity was always going to draw comparisons between James Vincent McMorrow and Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver). But the Irishman should be pretty satisfied with the comparison as his soulful falsetto and acoustic folk hits a particularly sweet spot with soaring choruses and...
5 tags
The Love Language - Libraries →
Another one from 2010’s vault appearing this week is Libraries, the second album by The Love Language whose 2009 debut was one of my favourites of the year. There’s something absolutely timeless about Libraries as Stuart McLamb’s voice suddenly becomes the bombastic echo of melancholy through a shimmering Wall of Sound-esque production. Full of hooks, full of emotion and full of...
5 tags
Jenny And Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now →
Seems like Spotify just noticed that it’s summer and it’s finally time to get all of last year’s most sunny records out of their licensing-dungeons and exposed to the world. Jenny (Lewis from Rilo Kiley and her own successful solo work) and Johnny (Rice, the folk-troubadour) are a real life couple and, as the title says, they clearly had fun making this record. It’s a...
5 tags
Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines →
Another rollickin’ set of tunes from Seattle’s Telekinesis who are now more band than man. Adding a few more musicians to the roster, Telekinesis lead vocalist and drummer Michael Benjamin Lerner has filled out the sound of their debut album and regenerated with a emphasis on the melodic and uplifting, despite the challenging personal circumstances that led him to holing up in a...
5 tags
Apex Manor - The Year Of Magical Drinking →
When the Broken West quietly called it a day in 2009, Ross Flournoy, the group’s chief creative force, fell into a severe spell of writer’s block. Eventually rescued by a ‘write a song in a weekend’ challenge, the juices started flowing again and with the help of friends and former bandmates he swiftly put together a brand new record under the guise of Apex Manor. A solid...
1 tag
March Playlist
March already feels like a world away and that’s no more represented by the (relative) disappearance from view of some of the month’s earlier releases. Semi-disappointing efforts from Those Dancing Days and The Rural Alberta Advantage however were swiftly overcome with an amazing return to form from Athens’ finest R.E.M. and a...
4 tags
Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On →
A gorgeously haunting record this one, every bit worth it’s title. The Canadian three-piece achieved some praise for their 2009 eponymous debut but this really marks a significant step up as rich and varied instrumentation is juxtaposed with singer Taylor Kirk’s sombre voice to create a very unique sound that defies tagging. The single Black Water does a particularly adept job of...
5 tags
Destroyer - Kaputt →
The legendary Dan Bejar’s latest finally makes it to Spotify. While some are heralding Kaputt as the masterpiece in Destroyer’s collection (and it certainly is some of his finest set of lyrics combined with a synthetic, full-on production not seen in his arsenal before) I think that’s doing a slight disservice to his previous work. Always a master of the mischievous construct,...
March 2011
13 posts
5 tags
Alexander - Alexander →
Alexander, who may be more familiar to you under his Edward Sharpe guise (although this time without his Magnetic Zeros), has quite the talent to create fabulously exuberant songs. This is no better signified than the title of the opening track: Let’s Win! Throughout the rest of this eponymous debut, an assortment of styles make fleeting and exciting appearances, from soul to folk via reggae...