Saturday, October 13, 2007

september album notes and recommendations

broken social scene presents kevin drew "spirit if": so, the thing about solo album spin-offs is that you always want them to surprise you with a new sound or new trick - they ought to somehow depart from the band's last album (otherwise, why go solo or have collaborated in the first place?). a good example of nice solo departure is sam prekop's solo albums departing from the sea and cake albums. here, the solo album is kind of falls short - it's basically just another BSS album, which, well who knows, might be what everyone wants anyway.

devendra banhart "smokey rolls down thunder canyon": as usual, distinctly unique from the music that's out there. but, I think this album is one of db's weaker ones.

* emma pollock "watch the fireworks": former singers/songwriter of the Delgados', first solo album. totally great songs, fun to listen to, etc. actually, they are the kind of songs where when you first hear them, you feel like you've heard them before. might be my favorite album of the month. all songs appropriate for singing in the shower.

the good life "help wanted nights": well, it's good and I like it, but I wish tim kasher would go in a different direction or do something different from his other albums. this album is just like - in quality and sound - his other albums, when one expects and hopes a musician's sound to mature over time.

jose gonzalez "in our nature": acoustic guitar, folk-ish singing. pretty good album. very similar in sound and feel to his last album. rainy day music.

iron & wine "the shepherd's dog": pretty good, but I still maintain that I&W really benefits from the type of collaboration heard on "in the reins" (with calexico) - necessary to interrupt the slight sense of monotony on all iron and wine albums. (monotony of melody, that is...this album has fuller more complicated and varied composition, but the melodies remain distinctly pretty, but not extremely interesting, as is typical of non-collaborated I&W albums)

les savy fav "let's stay friends": I generally don't like LSF, but they start to approach, on this album, something I might almost like - that is, they're sort of toning down the harsh post-punk sound. only, why is emily haines on this album too? can someone explain to me why she is everywhere these days?

library tapes, "hostluft": quiet, swarming sounds and scraps of piano melodies. I kind of love the name of the band too. eluvium and stars of the lid and phillip glass type of minimalism.

manu chao "la radiolina": first time I ever heard manu chao, years ago (thanks bk) I had no idea what to make of it, and certainly never expected it to end up on the overly-concerned-with-hipster-hipsterness-pitchfork. anyway, listening to this album is kind of a "fun," "multicultural" experience. (?)

shocking pinks, self-titled: same disjointed, more rhythmic-than-melodic feel as broken social scene. intentionally interrupted and incomplete.

shout out louds "our ill wills": I almost turned the album off after the second song, but good thing I didn't - it gets better. don't expect the same upbeat songs like their last album - this album is about heartbreak.

2 comments:

greg said...

I totally agree with you on Emma. What a voice, what great songs.

and now I'm on to the Library Tapes which sounds like it's right up my alley.

The new Iron & Wine I think is really good though unlike Paste Magazine (which I only read because it's free and my housemate has a subscription otherwise I think it's not that good) claims Sam Beam to be the next, "Great American Folk Singer." They should of brought this up ago maybe 4 years ago when he released his well received quiet and low-fi self-titled work. Sam already set his bar is really high and Paste needs pay more attention.

take that Paste Magazine!

2007 is becoming a pretty solid year for music. At least I'm digging the sounds. The new Scout Niblett record is super good. The Castanets new record is out next Tuesday and White Magic has a 4 song EP that's suppose to be awesome coming out in 2 weeks.

there's some music news.

April take care and rock hard!

greg

afs said...

yeah, I've been pretty impressed with the music in the last few months.

also, I'm thinking of reviewing the band "vampire weekend" - check them out; they're completely under the radar (nothing about them on pitchfork or allmusic).