The Smiley Smile Message Board

Please note this isn't intended as yet another thread in which to trash modern music, to re-re-re-restate your hatred of rap, or to note with pride that you haven't listened to new music since 19XX: we've got more than enough opportunities for that. Rather, the idea is for people to share their thoughts on new releases as they come across them, be they good, bad or somewhere in between.

I came across two bands I've never heard of, though both have members that I knew and I'm sure many of you will, too.

The Autumn Defense, "Fifth." This is a band comprising Wilco members Pat Sansome and John Stirratt as well as other contributors. Sometimes it recalls Wilco, but it leans way, way to the pop side. Maybe the more A/C west-coast 70s style of Wilco married to chamber pop? Nice melodies, lush (inventive) arrangements, and a sweet lead voice in Stirratt. Believe me, many of you lovers of a certain kind of pop that brings us to a certain board such as this will be reminded on more than the rare occasion. I think immediately of Bill Ricchini, a modern musician who also shares those types of chamber pop influences, but this is better. (Sorry, Mr. Ricchini.) I listened on Spotify but intend to buy this album. How did they release four albums before without me ever hearing of, much less hearing, them?

The New Mendicants, "Into the Lime." This is yet another "supergroup" (tongue in cheek) for Teenage Fanclub's Normal Blake, this time with Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers. It sounds like you'd think it was, which is no insult. I only listened to about 2/3 of it earlier, but plan to return to it. Again, this is very much classic, melodic pop. It's laid back most of the way through, sometimes absolutely beautiful, other times tunefully cheery in midtempo semi-rockers. Worth a try.

Jess Williamson, "Native State." This was released this week; I heard of it (and her) only through a Pitchfork review and listened on Spotify. The easiest comparison is Joanna Newsom, but it's not as simple as that. If Ys was Newsom as some kind of bizarre medieval musician, and Have One On Me was Newsom as a 70s soft rocker, Williamson is almost what one could imagine a (harpless) Newsom doing if she took on a country-folk. The instrumentation is spare, mostly acoustic guitar but some strings here, some percussion there, some banjo or pedal steel. The songs are on the longer side and don't follow obvious structures, but (again like Newsom) little snippets pop up that could have been a verse or refrain, if only they'd been repeated throughout a song. Honestly I haven't paid a lot of attention to the lyrics yet, so I won't bother commenting much there, much less comparing (though there was a nice bit of alliteration going on in this last song). Strongly recommend people give this a shot, especially if they're Newsom and/or folk-country fans.

The fabulous Jeremy Messersmith is soon going to release the follow-up to his fantastic 2010 album The Reluctant Graveyard, a heavily Beatles-inspired album of serious pop glory. (I'm not kidding or really exaggerating on that. Check out a few songs, such as Lazy Bones - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVsxtZRLkaY or A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2XdgMFffZU or Organ Donor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MdFgDoj8Y )

Anyway, his new album, Heart  Murmurs, is out Feb. 4, and I'm really excited for it. Though I bought and am not as thrilled as I'd have hoped regarding the lead-off single, "Ghost." I haven't seen the studio version on youtube, but here is a live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azbUlPz-fxM  The tune starts with a typical voice-and-guitar intro. The studio version kicks in with a kind of pub-folk-pop feel that seems to be everywhere the past few years, like a Mumford & Sons or Lumineers kind of thing, and honestly I'm getting worn out on that sort of thing these days. That said, I'll be buying the album on Feb. 4. Messersmith has one of my favorite few voices in all of modern pop music. (Along with Robert Harrison of Future Clouds & Radar and Cotton Mather, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the guys from Milk Carton Kids, and Janelle Monae ... y'know, since you asked.)

Listened to all 3 songs you posted and while they're all nice, I find him them a bit generic. He didn't catch my attention in any particular way, at least not enough to make me want to listen to an entire album. What do you like so much about his voice?

P.S.  I hope I don't come across as rude - I really appreciate you taking the time to find and post more underground-ish current music.

No, there was nothing rude at all in your post. And it never offends me to have others not share my taste; shared sense of enjoyment builds community, sure--and that's wonderful--but music is also a solitary pleasure and someone else's lack of it is (to be blunt) irrelevant.

What do I love about his voice? That's a hard question to answer, actually, because part of me wants to say "I just do." That's the easy way out, though, so I'll try my best. First, I like its range. Strange though that may sound, it's true for me. I'm not a fan of lower voices in general. With a few exceptions (Waits, Cohen, modern Dylan) I just don't like baritones or basses much, other than to fill out harmonies. I like a lead voice to be a tenor--first tenor, if possible. It's the natural over typical pop instrumentation, I suppose, with a lot of guitar and keyboard parts generally sitting right in the middle and lower registers.

Second, I like the senses I get from it: I hear vulnerability, melancholy, or wistfulness in it. And then on occasion, when he belts a bit more (or belts by his standards, anyway), it is surprisingly clear and strong. (I am going to use a Beach Boys analogy, but please don't confuse how I'm doing so: I'm not comparing these people in quality, just doing this for illustrative purposes.) It's like it goes from a sweet and sensitive mid/late '60s Carl Wilson to a sharper, brassy Brian or Al.

So I guess those are the qualities I like in his voice itself. Beyond that, I really enjoy most of his material, especially off that album I mentioned. (I liked a few songs very much off its predecessor, as well, The Silver City, but not as many.) I think his melodies are earworms, to be honest. I find myself humming parts of "Knots," "Violet," (neither of which did I post, I guess), as well as those I did and others. In fact--and this is embarrassing--I once wrote a song the opening line of which I was really proud of, until I realized I'd accidentally lifted it from his "Dead End Job." Whoops...

Hope that helps.

As for the thread, I hope others out hearing new music use it as well. With people saying they don't find anything worth hearing or don't know how to even go about looking, it seems that a thread like this can turn some people on to something they might like (or help them avoid wasting their time).

I wanted to add, I don't intend for this stuff to be necessarily "underground-ish" at all, either. Who knows, maybe the next 2014 release I come across (or someone else comes across) will be from someone in the Top 10. Definitely not going for an elitist or hipster thing at all.

That does help, you expressed your thoughts very well.

I like what you said in the last paragraph - if anything, seeing new music being posted gets me out of my lazy, listen-to-what-I-already-own mentality.

Although, to be honest, I always feel that my musical education has too many gaps (there are lots of bands folks consider classics that I've yet to listen to). At times I think to myself that listening to those should be my main priority, you know, for getting a better historical perspective (in the same way that listening to an artist's albums chronologically makes more sense than jumping randomly).

But at the same time, jumping randomly from genre to genre, from decade to decade is simply more fun and exciting. I love listening to albums that are out of my comfort zone. Does any of this make any sense? Or is it just me worrying about stuff like this.

Cool. For what it's worth, I really look forward to Lorde this year. I loved her 2013 singles very much - the lyrics, the voice, the personality, the minimalist instrumentation, I think it all comes together very nicely.

^ Also the fact that she's so "out there" when performing live. Makes for a nice change when it comes to pop divas.

Makes perfect sense, and especially that first paragraph above that I've quoted of yours is exactly what I have thought over the years and sometimes keep thinking. We need to remember, there has been more than a century of pop music already, and that's not even bothering with pre-pop music of previous centuries. There is always a TON out there, both old and new. And I have often been introduced (and continue to be sometimes) to great older music that I just missed out on.

This board, this board's predecessor, and the Record Room board have introduced me to a lot of what I've missed over the years. It's through their work that I was able to get into things like Bowie, Motown in general, Gram Parsons, Elvis, and many others. (Not that I'd never heard them, but just that I'd never heard them.)

But ... what I also have come to realize is that in my earlier days of ignoring the new for the classic, I actually missed out not only on some great then-current music, but I missed out on experiencing it in its time. There is definitely something very valuable about music once it has stood the test of time, but there is also something amazing about hearing music in its own time, even if it won't ever live to see tomorrow. Sometimes being only of your own time, but perfectly of your own time, is really remarkable. And so even if that song is always "so 2014," well that is a powerful thing to be. Make sense?

So these days I recognize I'm not going to catch everything, old or new, but I try to keep my mind and ears open. Plenty of sh*t, plenty of mediocrity, plenty of decent, some great, occasionally transcendent.

(As I type, "Heroes" by Bowie comes up on shuffle. Nice.)

I totally get this - I so regret not getting into Amy Winehouse while she was still alive. Interesting point about the "music of its own time" thing, do you have an example in mind?


You saying this just because you mentioned getting into Bowie above? Or is there some subtle thematic connection that I'm missing?

The new David Crosby album was realeased last monday and is way better than I expected. I highly recomend croz, the voice and songwriting are still excellent.

With respect to the former question, music of its own time, I have a few thoughts. Beck's first few records were so perfect to come into that mid-to-late '90s world as a junk drawer of anti-hip uber-hipness that, while still cool, isnt' the same in retrospect. Radiohead's Kid A. Run DMC's Raising Hell and Tougher Than Leather. Maybe Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In every case, it's not to say any of those aren't good records, but at their respective times, they just hit the spot, at least for me.

As for "Heroes," I guess the combination of me having just thought about being introduced to earlier great music, but more that I had just said something about music being occasionally transcendent, and then along comes what I'd call an example of that.

I'll have to give this a listen. I usually avoid albums by the legends, as they are almost invariably major disappointments (either sad attempts at modernity or equally sad attempts at revisiting past glory). But it's worth a try.

Cool thread! gonna start working my way through a few of these as well as hopefully have something to add. I listened to "fifth" and turned it off after about 5 songs, just didn't grab me at all and found it very boring.

Been waiting to hear the Mendicants album for a while as I'm a big fan of both Blake and Pernice but after 3 full listens now, I'm disappointed. Its easy to tell which song is a Blake song and which song is a Pernice song so I kinda wonder what the point of collaboration is? No real standout songs either. Much preferred the "Jonny" colab with Euros Childs though that also suffered from some similar problems IMO.

I was really excited when Jonny was announced, but I have to say I was disappointed in that. I preferred some of the previous Euros Childs much more. Oh well, such is life.

After the Disco, the new album by Broken Bells came out today.  Check it out, it's amazing.

I'm a Shins fan (mostly) and have liked some of what Danger Mouse did, but didn't really like the first Broken Bells album. However, I liked what I heard this morning during a radio interview on my drive to work, so I am about to listen on Spotify (and am coincidentally listening to their Nerdist interview right now). Looking forward to it.

I inadvertently lied: Spotify doesn't have it. I apologize for misleading all you kind people. (I'll sample the tunes on iTunes and make a decision whether to buy I guess.)

Yesterday I bought the previously mentioned Jeremy Messersmith album Heart Murmurs.

I've only listened once through, but have it in my 2014 purchases playlist on shuffle even as we speak, so I'll be hearing tunes come up now and again. My quick verdict is that it didn't capture me immediately the way some music might. There are some beautiful and some clever moments, though, and some of the other aspects strike me as likely slow burners to which I'll warm. "Steve" and "I Want to be Your One Night Stand" are really, really pretty. And for some reason or other, the first line in the album's closer, "Someday, Someone," really tickled my fancy: "Someday, someone will love the f*** out of you." A slow, pretty acoustic ballad with that line, it just killed me. Maybe the fact that I've got a propensity for profanity had something to do with it, too.

Oh yeah, I also previewed some of these songs on iTunes and bought the three I thought I'd like most: the title song ("After the Disco"), "Holding on For Life," and "Leave it Alone." If they grow on me, I'll probably go back and complete the album. So far I really like the former two. Then again I'm a sucker for Mercer's voice.

Jeremy Messersmith's Heart Murmurs seems to have been scientifically designed as a breakthrough album, focus-grouped for urban thirty-something women struggling with love (either its presence or absence). That's not to say it was especially thought through in that way, but that's how it comes across to me, anyway. Though with advance press coming in from Time, Rolling Stone, NPR and others, there does seem to be a concerted push.

A heart murmur is an abnormality in which blood leaks backward through what should be a closed heart valve. Sometimes it's serious, often it's not, and it's very common. Messersmith, always a clever and literate songwriter, perfectly named this collection of songs of not-quite-storybook love and lust affairs. He starts the album by showing up at a crying woman-friend's door at midnight, hugging her first, then dancing with her. If her boyfriend should come home, well, as the title says, "It's Only Dancing." That the music explodes after the first refrain hints, of course, it's more than dancing. "It's something that all good friends do / it's not like I'm in love with you / what a crazy idea, where did you get that? / ... Nothing to see, it's all so innocent." No one could believe it, but Messersmith won't admit to anything more.

These subtleties of message, subtleties of the heart, are what to me show an album directed at the fairer sex (stereotypical though it may be of me to say so). That song--and the whole album--reads like the situations women I've known will talk over amongst themselves and with a certain type of guy I suspect Jeremy's narrators to be, and know myself to be: that decidedly un-macho friend who will lend an ear, a shoulder, and occasionally get into messes like "It's Only Dancing." The conversations extend indefinitely. What did this or that mean? Does he love her? Do I love him? All these situations seem so complex, so outside of what you grew up expecting to be a part of ... and yet these heart murmurs are decidedly average, decidedly typical. Don't worry, ladies, Jeremy's here.

Demographic established, the other studied result is the sound. The songs are big and pretty, the typical Messersmith melodies drowning not just in the pianos or guitars, but in anthemic strings or flourishes of harpsichords, hammered dulcimers, god knows what else. Sometimes they are too perfectly done for their own good, as in "Ghost," an unexpected example of Mumford & Sons sound made either obvious or eerily coincidental when one realizes the album is on Glassnote Records along with--well I'll be damned--Mumford & Sons. That anomaly aside, the whole thing is so professionally done (which sounds insulting but shouldn't) as to seem, well, scientifically designed. If these songs wind up in an episode of NBC's Parenthood or some such thing, I wouldn't bat an eye.

The musical standout for me is "Steve," a beautiful song over an arpeggiated piano (and some strings) told from the point of view of a best friend comforting a guy who's girlfriend has just left him. The clever rub--and there always is one--is that the narrator sings "kiss me under the moonlight, won't you, Steve?" Maybe Messersmith is singing as a woman, maybe as a man. The latter seems likely with a line like "Steve, I'm your best friend, there's nothing that I wouldn't try." Nothing definitive, just suggestive. Strongly suggestive. Being two decades into this millenium, such a thing is hardly shocking anymore. But it remains ear-catching, clever. Also gorgeous, the closer "Someday, Someone," which opens with the line that tickled me to death: "Someday, someone will love the f*** outta you."

For my taste, Messersmith's beautiful but not always especially strong voice is overly swamped in the heavy arrangements. I love the fragile effect his singing has, but with such big melodies, such big songs, such big anthems, eventually it feels a more intimate environment would suit him better, as if he were lost in the middle of all that music.

That said, I recommend you take a listen, at least, especially if you are a fan of melodic, sometimes gentle pop like Elliott Smith, Dan Wilson, etc.

Kudos for this thread. Very interesting and I'll have to check out some of these albums mentioned.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming album by Danish indie-pop group Treefight for Sunlight. Here is the first single 'Come Closer':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIIxKjbF0Ns

Their debut album 'A Collection of Vibrations for your Skull', which came out here locally in 2010 (and was issued by Bella Union internationally the year after, simply as 'Treefight for Sunlight'), remains one of my favourite albums from the past years. I think there is a lot to like on there for Beach Boys fans, but without the songs being mere carbon-copies of the Brian Wilson sound. The first song I heard from these guys was 'Facing the Sun', played on local radio - and I almost mistook it as a rediscovered Curt Boettcher track, ca. the Millinnium. That's how great it is!

'Facing the Sun'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EebZGTMKA

there's also the equally great 'What Became of You and I?'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RHtzq-5dY

If you like these two tracks, you really should check out their debut album - no filler there other than a bit of a misplaced instrumental. I've seen them live once and was particularly impressed by the helium-high voice of their bass player who NAILED Kate Bush' Wuthering Heights - and in the original key to boot! Very impressive!

Not a fan of the track or group (listened to all your examples), but damn, that guy DOES sound like Curt Boettcher!

Spinning the new BECK (Morning Phase) right now.. I'd recommend it!

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_PXDWbVveIU/UnAaMXjh5DI/AAAAAAAAmZE/XBaEyKGARYs/s400/c6dc710e992cee5bcf21aa1e3a3dcdf6.gif)

What kind of Beck album is it?

(http://31.media.tumblr.com/a92c1176d58a31e165a88d3d47183d71/tumblr_mzq6kl4p4B1r50azqo1_1280.gif)


 ;) ;) ;)

I just listened to about the first half of this. My first thought (during the first song) was that it was a little too adult contemporary for me. But then there were some interesting bits in those next few songs. I was surprised at the quality, even though the style isn't really up my alley.

I've never been a huge fan of Beck but I heard his new song "Waking Light" on the radio for the first time today.  Incredible song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixtNYSiNyO4

Last month Angel Olsen released the album Burn Your Fire For No Witness, and I gave it a few listens this weekend. Eventually I bought four songs, my favorite of which is probably this Leonard Cohenesque "White Fire."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB3xElewqWw

"Everything is tragic / it all just falls apart"

There's an opening line for you.

Like those early Cohen songs, the repetitive guitars serve as drone to a simple, deadened voice with barely a melody to be found--as much dirge as pop song. But instead of Cohen's nylon-stringed guitars, we have fuzzy, dark-toned electrics, and instead of his low baritone, we have her breathless alto. The hypnotic effect of the song is similar.

"If you've still got some light in you, then go before it's gone. Burn your fire for no witness, it's the only way it's done."

Have a nice Sunday, everyone...

Can we call something posted to Soundcloud a "lead-off single?" If so, here's Eels's first single from the upcoming The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett, the mostly acoustic-and-voice (with strings) "Agatha Chang."

https://soundcloud.com/the_eels/agatha-chang-eu

I expected today to come home from work and check out the new Beck and St. Vincent albums: hopefully find them on Spotify for full previews, at least check out what I could hear on iTunes or find them on youtube. I'd heard snippets of each and was interested enough at least to go through the exercise.

Instead while perusing Pitchfork's reviews today I was thrilled to see a new, self-released album by the former frontman of the defunct indie pop band Voxtrot, Ramesh Srivistava. Be still my beating heart. Voxtrot was another of those bands that came out of nowhere for me, an EP in the mail along with a pile of other unknown albums to review. But that first EP (and the second, for that matter) left a mark. Alas, two EPs, one 3-song "single," one full-length album, and a few more singles, and they were gone, I would guess by 2010. A five-year life, a seemingly instantaneous rise and disappearance. Any band that can put out wonders like "The Start of Something" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFj9V6WWLg )deserves a few more rounds...

The point is, today I found out that Ramesh has released The King. I've purchased but only listened to half so far. I'm excited to give it a few full spins. Welcome back, Ramesh.

I bought St. Vincent's new album today and it was fucking great. Highly recommended.

Came to this thread to say pretty much the same thing.

For those into psychedelic pop/rock, Sun Structures by the new Brit band Temples is pretty good.

Here's my favorite song on the album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwZVQm1ENqY

I just came to this thread to post about Temples! It takes a couple plays to sink in. Also, they're clearly trying to be Tame Impala but they aren't as good. Still worth checking out. It's a trippy album. Besides, who knows when the next Tame Impala is coming out and how good it'll be.

Yeah I think Tame Impala is better too. But this album was a decent start.

BTW I listened to it in my car this past weekend, and they did a lousy mixing job. The vocals were definitely "under mixed." I had to turn up the treble and mid-ranges to keep the vocals from being overly drowned out by the instrumentation. I didn't notice it so much when I listened to it online, but I think that's because I was listening to it on my headphones. On the CD in my car the vocals were very muddled.

/rant

EDIT: I recently wrote a review of it on the Music Banter forum:
http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psychedelic-rock/72221-temples-hookworms-new-generation-psychedelic-adventurers.html

I bought the new Beck album late last week. It's not solidly great, but it has some really good moments. "Blackbird Chain" in particular is a standout, with its clever time changes. Love that. I think "Heart is a Drum" is beautiful, as well--it reminds me of Nick Drake (though not with the vocal harmonies, obviously). Some of the album just drags for me, though.

Previewed most of and bought three Pharrell Williams tracks off his G I R L album today. Those who followed the Grammys thread may recall a certain amount of confusion or aversion to him: the guy in the weird hat who nobody ever heard of singing with some group nobody ever heard of. Et cetera. If you've followed pop music over the past 15 years or so, you've heard of him.

You may know "Happy" if you a) follow the pop charts or b) saw Despicable Me (I didn't). Here is one of the many official music videos for it--I didn't quite catch the details, but I believe they did hours (24?) of video for it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

I like it a lot, great groove, fun, good harmonies in the refrain.

Also enjoyed "Brand New," which is a duet with Justin Timberlake. Great beat, cool vocal "instrumentation" in the background. Funky guitar kicks in. "Come Get It Bae" is also fun, a spare tune reminiscent of Prince's "Kiss" to me, with its clean electric guitar and falsetto, simple melody.

Overall I'm more impressed by any given moment of Pharrell's tracks than I am by the totality of his songs or of his voice. But those three songs, at least, are good additions to the collection.

Check out the new WARPAINT, you guys!

(http://oi59.tinypic.com/2599w93.jpg)

Three songs into Spotify-streaming Aloe Blacc's new album, Lift Your Spirit, I've decided to buy it. You may know some songs off his last album, Good Things, such as the title track, "I Need a Dollar," or the cover of VU's "Femme Fatale." On this one again the styles switch song to song, from uptempo early 70s Stevie Wonder vibe to anthemic pop to almost a country-folk-pop, R&B, hip-hop, all with his really strong, soulful voice.

I'll write about it once I've listened to the whole thing a few times.

Edit: for what it's worth, I've also just discovered that iTunes has it on sale for $7.99 at the moment. I win.

Last weekend I purchased Stanley Brinks and the Wave Pictures' album Gin, which I'm enjoying, but more importantly I got their single "Orange Juice." It just might be my favorite song so far in 2014.

Stanley Brinks is the nom de plume adopted by Andre Herman Dune, formerly a co-lead songwriter and singer in the band Herman Dune (along with his brother David-Ivar), when he left that band. His songs tend to be very formulaic, which I don't mean in a bad way. But rather I just mean verses will be very traditional, A-A-B-A, for example. But his lyrics are often hilarious and somewhat hedonistic, and the music is enjoyable, mixing styles like classic pop or rock n roll, reggae, klezmer, jazz, and more. Andre/Stanley also seems pretty dedicated to the idea of recording-as-performance: the aforementioned album was recorded live in the studio without so much as headphones.

Without further ado, "Orange Juice"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5X3QJZ1y9A

Gave it a listen. Great stuff!

I got the new Foster the People album Supermodel and it's very good. They definitely know their way around a song hook. This album seems more substantial than their debut- no sophomore jinx here. I think this group could be around for a good while. Check out this tune. It reminds me of a Todd Rundgren record and Tears For Fears 'Sowing The Seeds of Love'.

Pseudologia Fantastica:      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRLSwqIUm60

Just got the new St. Vincent album and look forward to playing it a couple of times. First time I'm listening to a full album of hers. Will come back with opinions.

I'm also looking forward to the new Kanye West which was announced. I'm not really a fan, but it'll be interesting to see how he manages to follow up an album like Yeezus.

I will also definitely buy the new Pixies. Yes, the songs that I've heard in 2013 were disappointing. But it's the fuckin' Pixies. I would buy their albums even if Frank Black's lyrics would start making sense, that's how much I love them.

The wilko johnson / roger daltrey album is easily my favourite new album of 2014. Great songs, great guitar and great vocals. Maximum R&B indeed!

OK it's been a while since I've contributed here. I haven't been listening to a ton of new stuff, but I have gotten through a few things.

Lana Del Rey's new single, "West Coast." I liked "Video Games" but have been unimpressed in general by Del Rey--especially her SNL performance. However, I gave this a listen just because I came across it on Spotify. And I kind of like it. (I don't love it.) Is that the guitar line from "Wicked Game"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3SqUUoJjW8

Eels' "The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett." Only just began so I have nothing to say yet, other than that it sounds like Eels. I think it is out next week, maybe? But NYT is streaming it here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?ref=music

Secret Sisters' "Put Your Needle Down." Heard an NPR feature and was intrigued, checked out some of this album on Spotify as well. Vocal harmonies with production by T-Bone Burnett. A guy could do worse. I need to check it out in more depth, though. Some of the songs didn't strike me at all, others were really cool. There is even a previously unfinished Bob Dylan tune, "Dirty Lie," that they got permission to finish. Cool.

Jessica Lea Mayfield. I liked her "Our Hearts Were Wrong" enough to check out the new album once I heard there was one. Wasn't impressed, didn't even note the album name. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Regarding Secret Sisters, I am listening. While the album doesn't always sound like this, here is a tune I enjoy and thought some of you might as well. It's a live version from a radio showcase, but you get the idea: somewhat indie-modernized girl-group sound a la the M Ward/Zooey Deschanel project She & Him, but with women who can sing. (oooh, ain't I sassy?) If you like it, I recommend you find the studio version. I'm sure it's on youtube, I just didn't try hard to find it. It's on Spotify as well. And of course you could buy it.  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyLQz6oymhU

Eli "Paperboy" Reed's new album, Nights Like This, is an obvious try at modern radio-friendliness for this previously traditional soul/R&B singer. The results are probably best left to listeners and their goals. My guess is that the people who have loved him up until now will not be impressed; a whole new batch of listeners, however, may well be drawn in.

To demonstrate my point, here is one of his singles from 2010, "Come and Get It." Wholly backward-looking, sure ... but indisputably well done, from that great bass line to the horn punches to the hook, this was good stuff for people seeking authentic-sounding soul a la Stax from a modern artist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5_p3iLqChQ

Here is the single "WooHoo," which is one of the more traditional tunes on Nights Like This. Still reminiscent of his '60s soul favorites and hooky as hell, but the production is definitely nothing like the last time around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPqDP8Qdon4

Other songs, like "Well Alright Now," "Grown Up," or "Not Even Once," are even more obvious attempts at hybrid, built-for-radio (or commercials...) R&B. They aren't bad, they're just a different kind of music, a different kind of production, and presumably a whole different goal. The allmusic review compares this album to the Mark Ronson-Amy Winehouse aesthetic, but to me it sounds more like the most recent album from Aloe Blacc. It sounds very professional, very intentional, but very ... uh, focus-group tested.

This album, for the most part, isn't for me. That said, some of it is catchy enough that I'll listen a few more times and maybe buy a few songs. I could see myself getting into "Not Even Once."

Another example of modern R&B but a wholly different vibe and result, I'm partway through Kelis's new Food, and I am really impressed. If you know a Kelis song, there's a good chance it's "Milkshake." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA) And if I know this board, odds are you don't like it... Well, this album is miles from that. Personally, I fell in love with the tune "Acapella," off her 2010 album Flesh Tone, but this album is miles from that, as well.

This album is less overtly hip-hop and dance oriented, with more natural instrumentation (not just the standard stuff, but horns and strings as well). Here is the slithering, propulsive single "Jerk Ribs." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQgppPHXJSs I love the fact that it's not quite possible to peg what this is or when it's from. Certainly there are retro touches, but it doesn't seem remotely pastiche. It sounds modern, but without any blatantly in-the-moment touches, either. (No, no obvious autotuning, people.)  This is one of my five or six favorite singles of 2014 so far.

However, there is a better song: a cover of Labi Siffre's 1971 song "Bless the Telephone." I haven't found the Kelis version on youtube (though it is on Spotify), but here is the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FirBvR1HmKI It's a pretty enough song in that incarnation, but the new version sounds better to these ears. It's a little slower, darker toned, with a fuller guitar sound and a male voice an octave below Kelis's.

I'm buying at least a few of these songs, maybe the whole album.

Something I found recently:

Ryley Walker - "Clear the Sky"
https://soundcloud.com/tiny-mix-tapes/ryley-walker-clear-the-sky

It's a really nice song. Very earthy (and baroque) arrangement, intricate fingerstyle guitar playing, unique voice, and dreamy vibe all remind me of the best of Nick Drake and other English folk-ees. I haven't heard the rest of the album yet, but if the rest of it's as good as this song is, I'll be making sure to pick this record up.
If that's your sorta thing, be sure to check it out.

The new Neil Young LP, A Letter Home, is worth a spin. The album concept is pretty self-explanatory (as it is creatively successful, despite the somewhat tired "all covers record" routine many of our dear old rock and roll survivors cling to).

(http://oi62.tinypic.com/fmov47.jpg)



(source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Letter_Home))


(http://oi58.tinypic.com/15hmtev.jpg)

Michael Jackson's second posthumous release, Xscape, was released yesterday in the U.S. I listened today.

The album was heavily produced--or maybe the better word is assembled--by Timbaland, LA Reid, etc. The tracks are almost entirely newly created around Michael's vocals off of what had been an assortment of demos in various stages. Some may not approve of the idea, but for me it's not a problem at all. Michael's music works pretty well, especially in the current retro-R&B trend we have going on. It's not like taking a '30s blues vocal and putting it in the middle of some modern sound, for example. This works, and may well be how Michael would have approached it anyway, had he been here.

The bigger problem is the material. There is a reason these songs weren't released. I like "Love Never Felt So Good" quite a bit, but otherwise the songs are pretty mediocre. My feeling about the album is that it's well sung, well produced, dynamite sounding in most spots, but just subpar content. Still, the aforementioned single is worth $1.29.

I remember when I got the Michael album from 2010 and being disappointed too (particularly because they used someone else's voice in a lot of the songs).  As a fan though I got it for my collection as I will do with this new album.  Justin T.  did a great job on Love Never Felt so good, I could listen to both that and the original and be satisfied  :-D

Anybody want a nice earworm for summer?

"Mr. Steak, you're Grade A."

Kishi Bashi, "The Ballad of Mr Steak"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDiv7VGY4Pw

Kishi Bashi puts out solo music--as I suppose is obvious by this post--and has played with others, including Of Montreal (as violinist, keyboardist, I think a little guitar live, and background singer, especially falsetto). He's absurdly talented. This one is just a great summer tune, so catchy.

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Sarcasm? I think one can guess the charts aren't aware of Mr. Steak (sadly). I really do think it's great pop, though.

The new Sharon Van Etten album was released last week. I like some of it, especially this heavy piano-and-voice ballad, "I Know." The piano is so simple, but her voice powers over it in an appealing way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeMUPJ5diIs

Not sure about the album as a whole, but this is $1.29 worth spending.

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Forgot to post earlier, but I love this album - really great stuff. How do guys feel it compares with the rest of her discography? I've yet to hear the other albums.

I heard this on the radio today and had to come home and buy it: Dolly Parton covering Dylan's "Don't Think Twice." Talk about an amazing voice, hers certainly has aged well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpBfGpr1YNM

I think it's a better album than her previous work. She has worked with producer John Congleton (whom I love) to really refine that unusual atmosphere, creepily artificial, sometimes sterile but stabbed with sharp noises. Her singing has improved over time, too, I think.

That said, I'm not as big a fan of her as I once thought I'd be. I really liked "Marry Me" (the song more than the album) and was always excited for what she'd do. With each album I've been less interested despite the indisputable fact that she's extremely talented and the work is very well done. It's just not music I enjoy; rather, it's music that is interesting. It's almost like homework for me rather than an experience I lose myself in. I don't feel joy, or sadness, but usually just detachment.

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Conor Oberst (formerly of Bright Eyes, among other things) had a new solo album--his major-label debut, on Nonesuch--released a few weeks back. I've never been much of an Oberst fan, mostly because his quavering voice sounds shakily terrified to me. It's just weak. But this track, "Night at Lake Unknown," off of that new album is self-assured and beautiful, like a late 60s or early 70s Dylan song to my ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ZMbbV_xuw

Today I listened to Jack White's new album, Lazaretto. Never a real White Stripes fan, I did like Blunderbuss and some other things, like "Two Against One." (I may well like the White Stripes if I went back and listened, but at the time they didn't strike me as interesting and I didn't invest much time.)

While not immediately essential to me, the album's first three songs struck me as pretty damn good. My early favorite is the country-influenced duet "Temporary Ground." Prominent violin sounding like Scarlett Rivera's mid-70s contributions to Dylan, a woman (whose name I haven't seen) singing beautifully along with White, it caught my attention after the heavier rockers preceding it.

Temporary Ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaovoKswXOY

As for those rockers, "Three Women" and "Lazaretto," they are the sort of bluesy, sexy, Zeppelin-riffing songs you might associate with White. "Three Women" has a prominent Hammond organ that adds fantastic color, while the title track has a riff that honestly could have been a Page part.

Three Women
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rxuFh6kV_w

Lazaretto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI-95cTMeLM

I bought those three songs; may buy the rest of the album later. Give them a listen; this is quality modern rock music (in case anyone believes rock is dead, as is brought up pretty goshdarn incessantly around here).

Bright Eyes is so, so terrible. The worst of emo's tendencies disguised as folk and Americana. 99% of his fanbase is likely high school girls... most realize how much he sucks by college.

I haven't yet, and I'm fresh out of college.. :-\

10 years ago I was halfway through college and he was very popular with a lot of my peers.

I'm' not especially concerned about anyone's tendencies, disguises, or fanbases. And I don't like Bright Eyes. But I think this song is beautiful.

You'll get there. It's one of Piaget's steps.

... a concept based on the assumption of disputable genetic principles. I'll take I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning over epistemological mumbo-jumbo any day of the week. ;)

Gave the new Lily Allen album 2 listens...nothing really grabbed my attention so far.

the album to anticipate this year is Panda's new solo album. It is said to have been recorded but a release date (or even final title) still hasn't been announced

To use a Woody Allen quote, you can admire the technique, but it doesn't hit you on a gut level? ;D I can understand that, but I'm not quite with you. I still haven't heard her other stuff, but 'I Prefer Your Love' (to give the most obvious example) can get pretty emotional for me.

Fair enough. I'd never try to talk anyone out of liking anything, anyway--what a destructive habit!

Checked out 3 new 2014 releases this morning.

The Glass Animals' ZABA (decent, but not my cup of tea), enchanting chanteuse Jill Barber's new album Fool's Gold (recommended!) and Avey Tare's (of Animal Collective) new project Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks with the album Enter The Slasher House (I fell asleep during it, but that was due to lack of coffee. What I noticed was good sh*t, though. Second spin pending...).


(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/99507511/ZABA.jpg)
(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/99519827/Fools+Gold+cover.jpg)
(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/97972553/Enter+The+Slasher+House.png)

This morning I finally listened to Lana Del Rey's new Ultraviolence, which has been getting so much attention both in general (New York Times and NPR features, for example) and here (the BW recording). My first exposure to her was the single "Video Games," which I heard in the car while going to visit a girlfriend. I sat in the car to let it finish before going up, which meant it made some impression or other on me, but at the time I sat there listening, I couldn't decide whether it was good or just laughably bad. Somehow I'm still not sure (though I did include it on my best-of playlist that year), which in its own way makes it good. I think.

I still feel the same about Lana Del Rey. She's not a very good singer. Her persona is as painstakingly crafted as her music, the latter of which she writes lyrics and melodies for, leaving the fuller arrangements to collaborators. (No sin in that.) She's not much of a singer. And she's not much of a writer. Yet somehow there is something worthwhile about what she's doing, and for the life of me I'm not entirely sure what it is.

Ultraviolence is a narcotic haze of ironic or detached taboos. I take "Brooklyn Baby" and "f***ed My Way Up to the Top" as satires, jokes. "West Coast" is a decent single, kind of smouldering and less languorous than much of the album, though the "Wicked Game"esque slowdown for the refrain is an odd choice. The innocent (attempts at Midwestern?) affectations in "Pretty When You Cry," the over-pronunciations of the letter R in every word, are hard to listen to. Yet the song is good.

If nothing else, she got me to listen to another album. I doubt I'll buy it, but who knows, I may end up getting a song or two.

I there is approximately one other Of Montreal fan here, so I'll note that their documentary officially came out a week or so ago. The Past is a Grotesque Animal focuses on frontman Kevin Barnes, and especially takes the narrative of him as the sole consistent member of the band while others--including friends--come and go. A lot of negative talk from others about him, and some vice versa. He doesn't come off as especially lovable but I appreciate that approach, stripping out what I consider to be unrealistic "magic" and getting down to the reality of what it's about, which is crafting and playing music.

The film is in some theatres--presumably very limited release.

Kevin was signed a solo artist for his first record deal, of Montreal has never been a band. I guess it's just easier to market his style of music as a band, maybe.

Oh, I'm aware. The band was created to perform the music, and he just went with it. It's not even unusual: we've seen plenty of people who are sold as bands, both before and since. (Eels, for example. Final Fantasy before Owen Pallet went by his own name.) But the creative ownership has always been Kevin's, and people who want otherwise, well, that's fair ... it's just not reality. We all have our favorite incarnations. But it's up to KB to do what he wants.

Interesting tidbit from the doc that I didn't know, Sylvianbriar was actually conceived as a solo project that he eventually decided made more sense to market under the OM name. (I wholly agree, especially considering the previous sentiment: it doesn't matter who else is a part of it, it's oM as long as Kevin wants it to be.)

On the Elephant 6 kick...

Circulatory System released a new album last week, Mosaics Within Mosaics. The band, led by one of the two primary Olivia Tremor Control songwriters, Will Cullen Hart (The late Bill Doss went on to form the poppier The Sunshine Fix in the post-OTC years.), leans toward the sound collage, trippier aspects of OTC, with few fully fleshed-out songs. Instead it has focused on short pieces and collaboration presumably digitally equivalent to the early days of E6 tape-sharing, contributions from far and wide.

I'm not a big fan, personally. It's the pop side of OTC (and E6 in general) that has always appealed most to me. I usually find noise, collage, and "experimentalism" anything but the latter. Then again, I don't use psychedelics, so I plead ignorance, I guess. That said, I do like Hart's more traditional tidbits sometimes (though the acoustic guitar sound throughout sounds awful to me, like a bad dream of a thin-toned, brittle, plastic-backed Ovation). The title track, "Tiny Planes on Canvas," and "When You're Small" struck me on my first listen as pretty cool.

Oh, and allmusic.com was kind enough to skip the obligatory Smile reference. Rolling Stone wasn't...

Sylvianbriar seems like a natural progression from Paralytic Stales songs like Wintered Debts. It's funny he wanted to market the album under a different moniker when his career has been defined by stylistic evolution. Maybe he thought the label and his fans wanted more electro-pop?

I don't really know what he was thinking. Maybe it was more that he wanted to really start featuring Rebecca Cash and thought somehow that made more sense outside of the band? Really no idea. But I'd guess his eventual conclusion was exactly what we've both said in this thread, which is that he has always changed both styles and personnel, and so it could just as well be of Montreal as any other incarnation could be of Montreal.

Scanning things online and found that Kacey Musgraves released a new single a few weeks ago, "The Trailer Song." Typically funny (I think) and clever musically, though nothing earth-shattering by any means. Decided to post a 2013 performance from her Grand Ole Opry debut rather than the studio track because that was just a still pic of the cover and the performance isn't far off the studio version anyway. (Plus, hey, she's pretty ... it's a pleasure to watch her perform!) I bought it and really enjoy it. Still not sure how she meshes with Brian Wilson, but I guess we'll find out in a few months.

So here's some pop (but just barely, more in the 1970s sense than the 2010s sense) country for you.

The Trailer Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ugS08zy1cA

Wow, I had no idea she was such a good guitar player.

I'll have to listen, though like you I am a big fan of the poppier side of the Elephant 6 bands.

(In that vein, I've come to know Tammy Ealom from Dressy Bessy through my own band, and they're recording a new album.  This pleases me.)

One of the releases I am most looking forward to this year is coming out on October 7.  It's the debut album from Mary Timony's new band, Ex Hex.

(http://cdn3.pitchfork.com/news/55835/7c5fcea2.jpg)

For the unfamiliar, Mary Timony first rose to (indie) fame in the '90s as the guitarist & frontwoman of the alt-distorto-fairy tale-pop/rock trio Helium.  Their two albums, the noisy & distorted "The Dirt of Luck" and the trippy alt-space-pop of "The Magic City," are two of my absolute favorites of the '90s.  After Helium, she ran through four solo albums (starting with crazy minimalist medieval-pop and heading into big rock numbers) before winding up as one of the guitarists in the recent sort-of supergroup Wild Flag (a big old-fashioned rock four-piece also featuring Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney and Rebecca Cole of The Minders).

After Wild Flag ended, Mary wound up hooking up with bassist Betsy Wright of Chain & The Gang and drummer Laura Harris of Aquarium to form a new hard-charging rock power trio called Ex Hex (taking the name from one of Mary's solo albums).  They put out a 7" with three songs early this year as a taste of things to come, and have been recording a full-length in Mary's basement studio in D.C.  They just put out the first track from the album, "Don't Wanna Lose," on the Merge Records Soundcloud account.

https://soundcloud.com/mergerecords/ex-hex-dont-wanna-lose

Mary is a phenomenal guitarist and has a way with words - whether they be straightforward or trippy - and the new band is great.  Really excited for the album.

There's a video for one of the songs from the original 7" - "Hot and Cold":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bhLw3v_tiY

I don't have a love-hate relationship with Christopher Owens, former frontman and songwriter of the defunct band Girls. I have a sometimes-really-like-sometimes-not-so-much relationship with him. But he doesn't know about our relationship. (He did once puke at a friend's apartment once, but that's really not the point. And to be honest, it could have been somebody else in that version of Girls. I don't have the story straight. I hope Mr. Owens isn't litigious.)

Point being, I read yesterday that he's got a new solo album coming out this fall, which will be his second. I wasn't a fan of his first, in large part because I don't really like concept albums much. This from the guy who still considers Pepper the best Beatles album and is a full-fledged Zappa fanatic. (The man doesn't only have concept albums, but a concept catalogue.) But even that album, Lysandre, had some great tunes. Owens has a pop gift. When he's at his best, he writes formulaic gems. The man should team up with Mr. Love: whatever drugs he does, he certainly seems willing to not f*** with the formula, but rather embrace it in the best way. Sometimes the formula can be your friend, the boundaries an artist needs to explore within. No boundaries, no rules, means no frame. And a frame is what makes art in the first place. (See the Zappa autobiography. Also award me points for two FZ references in a single post about a musician totally unrelated to FZ.)

Anyway, here is the first single from Owens' upcoming album. It's called "Nothing More than Everything To Me," and it's got some superficial country trappings ... but it's the same pop he's been doing all along (when he's doing things right, anyway).
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iboUa31Hdzg

Here comes my entry to the category for Worst Story Ever.

I recall getting a Mary Timony album for review back when I did that sort of thing (maybe 10 years ago or so). I recall thinking she was a great guitarist. I don't recall, or still have, the album or my review of it. The end.

I will now get to work on my award acceptance speech and choosing the appropriate baseball cap to wear while giving it.

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Ha, that's a pretty great Worst Story.  :)

Mary's cool.  She's a great guitarist and I love her general overall weirdness and sense of humor - not like a "I can't function in public" weirdness, more a "here's a song about dragons, I'm going to go wear a golden cat mask" weirdness.

We got to meet her & the rest of the band at SXSW - that's my wife/our guitarist & vocalist on the left with them.  Total freakin' thrill for us.  :)

(http://distilleryimage1.ak.instagram.com/2cc09782aa2d11e38c120e352efb81d5_8.jpg)

Looking for something exciting this summer, something to really capture the wildness of rock 'n' roll while the days are long and hot? This, my friends, is not the album for you.

Luluc's Passerby is understated and subtly beautiful, wholly inappropriate for the season but wonderful nonetheless. It's not the music leading up to the first encounter, but the music during or after, comfortable, contemplative, languorous. It's the autumn Sunday morning with coffee and a blanket to ward off the chilly breeze coming through your open window. In fact, it's one of the best couple of albums I've heard this year. Does Australian folk get any better? I have no idea, I've never heard Australian folk as far as I know. But I know I love this.

Zoe Randell handles most of the lead vocals, with Steve Hassett singing harmonies. The arrangements are soft and guitar-based, either acoustic or soft, mostly clean electrics. There are strings, horns, reed, keyboards, and percussion, but they sneak up on you. If anyone asked, you might say it's just an acoustic-and-vocal record. It gives that impression, almost the way Nick Drake's records might.

"Without a Face" is as good a representative of the album as any--ok, largely because it's on youtube--and you can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQetpSkYnA8

But I'm especially partial to "Reverie on Norfolk Street" and "Tangled Heart."

The entire album, just out today on SubPop, is good. I bought it.

nice.  I hear the Nick Drake connection in the writing.  I'll give it a listen when the rest of the album gets uploaded. 

This evening I'm listening to the new Beck Song Reader album, by various artists. You'll likely recall that a couple years back, Beck released sheet music of new songs without any corresponding recordings. These are some (all? I have no idea, I never looked into it) of those songs as performed by several artists, including Beck.

The highlight for me so far is the instrumental "The Last Polka," by Marc Ribot, whom you may know from his work with Tom Waits since the '80s. Eleanor Friedberger (of the Fiery Furnaces) does a nice version of "Old Shanghai" and I really liked Jeff Tweedy's "The Wolf is on the Hill." Oh, and Laura Marling's "Sorry." Also on the album are Jason Isbell, Jack White, Jack Black, David Johansen, Fun., Norah Jones, and several others.

I can't really comment much beyond that yet, in that I'm only at the Friedberger song (3/4 through the album) with one semi-distracted listen to those first 15 songs. I'm making salsa, damnit.

The idea of this is interesting to me, though.

Another new one to which I've given a little--but admittedly not a lot--of time is Jenny Lewis's The Voyager. I'm not a huge Lewis fan, though she semi-won me over with her mid-00s album Rabbit Fur Coat. (Here is "You Are What You Love," the single that got played a lot at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0gLt8j-45s ) Pretty much everything I've heard from her since, though, has been somewhat disappointing to me.

The Voyager, then? Eh. Meh. I don't hate it, but I really don't love it. A lot of what I've read talks about it being an album of live performance, of first takes, which surprises me because it sounds pretty heavily produced to me. But I guess to be fair, it's not especially difficult music, so if well recorded, it could easily be done live (basic tracks, I mean). Here is one of the singles, "One of the Guys."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irvcf6dCk-k

Her lyrics just don't connect. She always overwrote for my taste, and keeps doing so here, jamming words into lines to get them all in however awkward the fit. (I'm reminded of of a line in "You Are What You Love" when she says "a bullshit canvas," but has the wrong accented syllables. Bull-sh*t can-VAS. That kind of thing can drive me nuts. That said, she writes good melodies, sings well, has some really quality music sometimes. I think she just exists on the periphery of my musical taste, not essential to my experience but certainly not a detractor in the big picture.

If your're a fan of SPOON or similar bands, check out their new LP - They Want My Soul.

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/99430551/They+Want+My+Soul+High+Quality+PNG.png)

As a curmudgeon and geezer, I still listen to new music and I like a lot of it.  I just can't keep up with or remember the names of the artists.  I feel like somone of my father's generation trying to recall and reference such names as Jefferson Airplane and Electric Prunes. ???

I keep hearing about that Spoon LP, I'll have to check it out today.

One of my favorite bands for years, sElf (that's the band name),  just released a new EP this past Tuesday. I've been listening to it on repeat. I think it's great and the lead single is killer. The EP is called Super Fake Nice and the lead single is "Runaway".

You can check the EP out here:
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/41985830%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-whR6I&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true

They actually just made their television debut (after about 20 years!) on Jimmy Kimmel last night. It was pretty exciting for me, having been a fan of theirs for quite some time.

My mom worked for our local newspaper when I was a kid, and I recall a column of hers back in the '80s showing confusion about band names: how apparently she couldn't tell whether a phrase was a band name or a song name.

Another one I'm really excited about, due on the 25th of this month, is "Brill Bruisers," the new album from The New Pornographers:

(http://cdn4.pitchfork.com/news/55523/c0c1c6ba.jpg)

They've shared a couple of songs, including the title track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhhtSXk1c70

And "War on the East Coast":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMcumbSMY_8

I'm loving what I've heard so far - sounds like classic New Pornos.  They're a big influence for me, so I am naturally quite excited about this album.  :)

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Sonny Knight?

http://youtu.be/vcrzoSgQMxI

I don't have strong feelings for or against. Solid band though.

As for the thread, it's totally appropriate to comment (pro or con) on new releases! As long as we don't devolve into "everything new (unless by old people or imitating old music) sucks" mentality, all is well.

Are you from MN? Have I forgotten? Current reference...

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(http://blogs.kcrw.com/musicnews/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/beck-morning-phase.jpg)

Heard a couple cuts from this album on the Colbert Report. Shimmering and beautiful. Has anyone bought it/review?

See first and second page of this thread. :)

I read that thanks but no one is rraving that it's a must buy CD. Do you recommend grabbing selected tracks off iTunes or is the CD a magical listening experience?

Selected tracks for sure. In hindsight I'd have bought 2-4 songs instead of the album.

Mahalo Captain. I have way too many CDs as is.

I couldn't say.. I'd suggest listen to the whole thing a couple of times and then select your favourites and buy those. If you're not a big Beck fan to begin with, that is.

I have a few of his albums. the songs I heard on Colbert were pretty amazing!

Get the whole thing, then. It's a great record. :)

I listened to the 2014 Owen Pallett album, In Conflict. It didn't appeal to me much at all.

Pallett has recorded under his own name and previously as Final Fantasy, and has arranged (especially strings) for a lot of artists, most notably Arcade Fire. His work features violin, which he plays (along with singing, keyboards, etc.). I fully enjoyed his 2010 song "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt," the odd video for which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G-cqAehehA

In Conflict includes contributions from Brian Eno (synth, vocals, guitar) and piqued my interest to a moderate degree. It wasn't something I was awaiting, but I kept it in the back of my mind as something to check out. So a couple months after the fact, I finally did.

And I didn't much like it.

My criticism isn't really fair and says more about my taste than about the album itself: it's too ambitious for me. It's not to say I want or like only 3-chord, stupid pop. Plenty of my tastes range far beyond that (be it Stravinsky, Zappa, Monk, Ellington, Wilson, of Montreal, and on and on), it's just that there are different kinds of ambition in my eyes. (Or ears.) And this album sounds like ambition for ambition's sake, like someone talented putting together really well crafted music to show you he's talented, not to present some other feeling or point. It doesn't sound joyful to me, or pained, or excited, or anything else. It just sounds crafted. And honestly, to me, mostly boring.

The tune I liked most is this, "Infernal Fantasy." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ngL5SmEIos  It maintains a feeling of motion throughout, its melody has a surprising turn, and the bass line is propulsive without being the primary driver (that left to the arpeggiated synth). The latter half of the song may be the one moment on the album that feels fully alive to me. I may buy this song. The rest, I probably won't listen to again.

I listened a couple of times to the 2014 album Midnight Sun by Ghost Of A Sabre-Toothed Tiger, aka GOASTTs. It's a duo between Charlotte Kemp Muhl and her boyfriend, Sean somebody. Lemon, I think. Having heard Sean's previous stuff I wasn't expecting a lot and don't recall why exactly I decided it was worth even giving a listen. I'm glad I did. Fans of '60s-inspired psych pop will probably find something to like. I don't have specific points to make here, but I'll get around to it. I haven't bought it yet and just want to decide whether to do the whole thing or just a few songs.

Here's a live clip from Letterman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8VauCJYTs

Sean Lennon sucks. Bad singer, boring songwriter.


I love comparing his career to his father. John co-wrote or wrote, and recorded hundreds of the songs and how many albums by the time of his death at 40. John ws a professional. Sean has made only three albums in his 38/39 years. He's just a rich kid pretending to be a musician.

(http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y392/DoctorLime/Gifs/Disbelief%20Shock%20and%20WTF/ieeRSPq_zpsd37a1e6c.gif)


Does he have a new album out? If not, this is hardly the place for Sean Lennon 'bashing'. (Or should I say 'trolling'? Comparing Sean to John is just dumb..)




EDIT: Apologies, Gabo. I failed to notice Lennon's current group was mentioned in the post before yours.

Yeah he released a new album in his duo with his model girlfriend

Never heard their act. Will check it out. I liked Friendly Fire back then.

With Friendly Fire, I'd have agreed with Gabo, more or less. I think Midnight Sun is pretty decent. Doesn't blow me away as some kind of important album or anything, but it's nice. And in fact their earlier album turned out to be listenable, too. Go figure.

Michael Cera's 1st proper album, true that (yup, no capital letters - it's indie). 21 tracks of mainly original material. Lo-fi weirdo indie folk/pop with a Syd Barrett vibe. There's a couple of throwaways but also some neat instrumental piano diddlies and capable guitar compositions. If you like the guy and the soundtracks to most of his films, give it a go. It certainly is a likable effort.


(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/100516543/true+that+COVER.png)




EDIT: I listened to it with a friend, and he was disgusted. ;D

For anyone into oldschool Blues Rock out there, check out the Blues Pills' eponymous 1st album (after a string of impressive EPs), released in late July this year:

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/98923947/Blues+Pills++album.png)

Well, Pitchfork has officially f***ed me. I had recently been thinking of assembling a massive--or at least substantial--collection of the best songs of the '00s so far, to be finished up around the new year (that being the halfway point of the decade from "start at year zero" reckoning). Well today those bastards released a best 200 tracks of the decade so far. Oh well ... my thunder may be stolen, but I'll do my own regardless, because let's be honest, my taste is the taste I care most about. (I will peruse their list, though. No harm in getting new ideas, and it's always fun to talk sh*t about their mistakes--er, opinions.)

thinking about the quality of music so extensively is such a waste of mental resources be creative instead

As creative as your signature? ;D

Thank you for your comment and its contribution to the thread.

Was listening to the new Literature album, Chorus today while reading what new releases were around ... and what the f*** have we here? Leonard Cohen has a new album coming out next month and released the first single, "Almost Like the Blues." Haven't even listened to it yet (aside from a few seconds of a preview), but bought and am downloading as we speak. I'm interested.

its a lyric from Bluebirds Over The Mountain. i think it's cute

New Rentals LP is recommended for any power/indie pop addicts (and Weezer fans)!

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/100149715/Lost+in+Alphaville+rentals.jpg)

I didn't know that they were even still together! I had the first one, which of course I got turned onto by 'Friends Of P'.

Swiftgate, anyone? (Gotta love pop culture controversy. See billion-page threads in the BBs discussion forum for proof!)

Monday, Taylor Swift released what could be argued to be her first pure pop single (though that last album was pretty fucking poppy), "Shake it Off," from the upcoming album 1989. The song reminds me of some Frankenstein's monster of Outkast's "Hey Ya," Vampire Weekend's "Diane Young," and something of the Rubinoos' -- oops, I mean Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." It's sugar. It's good sugar. Honestly, this is a fine single. I could do without the spoken bit, but othewise I'm all for it. Quality pop song, would have been a great summer hit, so I'm a bit surprised it is coming out now.

However, its video also brought up some controversy, with Swift dancing horribly for comedic purposes in different environments: ballet, 80s b-boy, modern, and yes, with twerkers. Some, including (the fantastic) rapper Earl Sweatshirt, have said the video is racist for perpetuating stereotypes. (The brilliant Mr. Sweatshirt probably shouldn't have admitted to not having seen the video in his critical tweets, though ... kind of hurts one's credibility.) I don't think it's racist, but I do think making comedy based on any culture--not necessarily just race, but culture--other than one's own is risky business. I can happen, it can work, but it's so easy to get in trouble with it. And this is the territory where someone's reaction is arguably more valid than your intentions. Not funny to bad taste to racist (or sexist or homophobic or otherwise nasty) isn't always a big leap.

Anyway, here is a Grantland piece that links to the video: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/haters-keep-hating-taylor-swifts-shake-it-off-will-take-over-the-world/

If NY Times is more to your taste, there is a link to an article there as well, also linking to the video: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/taylor-swifts-shake-it-off-video-a-dance-critics-take/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=me&_r=0

I'm not really a big fan of the song. Could really have done with some tightening up (whatever happened to 2:30 pop songs? Those were great), and I would have cut out the disposable "haters gonna hate". Then again, this kinda pop music really ain't mine thing and I don't know what people are looking for in these songs. I guess it's a nice, feel-good, relateable song for people to dance and brush off criticism to.

Also, I don't really have any problem with the video and think the only racist thing about it is the reactions. I think it's racist to assume that only one group of people can belong in a specific culture, but I guess sensational wording is what people go for these days.

I think what happened is maybe because albums are expected to be 40 minutes or more nowadays. It's pretty sad, but at least it's no longer an early 90s situation when CDs were 70 minutes and songs 5-6 minutes

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/BeHereNowcover.jpg)

NOOOOOOOOOO

Another good example is Bowie's Black Tie White Noise.

Mac DeMarco's Salad Days and Future Islands' Singles are my two favourite albums of the year. New St. Vincent was cool too.

Avi Buffalo's new At Best Cuckold is very, very rapidly growing on me. The band apparently comprises some serious youngsters--teens, I think--but the writing and arrangements are really impressive. The singer presents a kind of Wayne Coyne, Daniel Johnston, or John Ringhofer (Half Handed Cloud) sort of "I'm awed by the world" persona, both in lyrics and affectations. But the music really has some impressive moments of pop. Some of it is like the poppier side of Elf Power, some of it is Flaming Lips, some almost like a rudimentary Bacharach, if that makes much sense.

Here is a live performance (from a few years ago) of one of the better songs, "She Is Seventeen." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLPoBrwDDmg

The studio version found on the album has a fuller arrangement, piano, really nice bass line, and some subtle drumming.

I think I really recommend it. $9 (on iTunes) well spent in my opinion.

I swear I'm not a 15-year-old fat girl, but I'm hooked on Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass."

Here is the video of the studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk

Here is the Fallon/Roots "toys" performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc9MzCcmNCU

Some of the lyrics actually bug the sh*t out of me: I think blatant "empowerment" lyrics are almost always tedious, even giving away an underlying envy and inferiority (which actually contradicts their surface message in the first place). I mean, "skinny bitches" and all that ... ugh. (A bigger woman can easily be a beauty without belittling the smaller woman who's also a beauty, for f***'s sake...) ANYWAY, point being, this song is an earworm, as are a few others on her EP.

Robyn Hitchcock's The Man Upstairs is a beautiful album

I found that song yesterday and I agree with you. The lyrics aren't that great, but I just love the guitar in this song.

(http://i.sdcd.us/b/500/4/8/3/5/2755384.jpg)

I've been listening to some of the songs on NPR and there's some really good stuff on this album.
I would recommend this album to people who would like it.

‍

The entire EP nods to classic '50s and '60s forms. I think it's pretty great, actually, shitty lyrics or not.

Here is a cool jazz-trio version I really like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyTTX6Wlf1Y

‍

The past few days I've really been liking Sam smith's "I'm not the only one." While lukewarm on the rest of what I've heard of his, I think that's a fantastic song and vocal. The understated piano throughout is cool,too.

Picked up the new Jeff Tweedy and son album today. Only played it once through but it sounds promising.

Here is a link to the video. (May as well try to make it a little easier to listen to... Music starts at :43)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkpzqqog4k

‍

I have checked out a few and agree. A friend who assumed I knew all about it turned me on to it. (I'd never heard of the project.)

That last sentence cracked me up. Thanks for the tip on the album: I'm just over halfway through it on Spotify and have no idea whether I want to buy it. But I suspect I'm going to want to listen to it a few times to get a better handle on it, as there's plenty going on. It's quality work, no question about that. My only question for myself is, do I like it? Or just appreciate it? I thought "My Body" was really good. The first few songs, less so. The piano sound on "Don't Let Them In" is good.

I'm really enjoying it. The album is filled with twisted pop songs that sound like they were made by a gay super villain.
I actually like the beginning songs a lot, especially "Queen" and "Fool". The line "no family is safe when I sashay" from "Queen" is just brilliant.
It has a sort of Freak Out! vibe to it where the songs get progressively weirder as you go deeper into the album, only to wash back up on the last song, "All Along."

The lyrics are good throughout. I get a Scott Walker Bish Bosch vibe at times, and John Parish's influence is obvious.

That new Leonard Cohen track is really good, isn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szYrXzEi0cg
Have we been talking about it?
I'm sure there's already been discussion on it - ya'll have your finger on the pulse much more than I do.


And the Weezer single is on next...
Ughhhh - I kinda have started to like this song. But I still hate it as well. To use another person's phrase - I don't remember whose it is , but- *it rings the pavlovian bell* . That Rivers Cuomo is an evil hard workin' guy. 

Did you just put our fingers on your ass? Hello, nurse!

I love that song. It came out a couple weeks or so back and since then, it has been in my (in-progress) 2014 best-of playlist. Haven't gotten the album yet so I can't comment further.

HA! You wish!


I really thought The Darkness was a great lead off single for (the last album? ) , too..

Edit: I 'm not sure "Darkness" was the lead-off single from the 2012 album Old Ideas

That last album was a weird one for me, in that even now I don't think of it as great. Nothing blew me away. But the whole damn thing simmered as good. I suspect this one might be similar. For that matter, his entire catalog is like that for me, so I might not be the best person to talk about it.

On an entirely different note i want to briefly plug again Avi Buffalo, whom I mentioned a week or two ago in this thread. Really enjoying that album (At Best Cuckold). "Overwhelmed With Pride," "Memories of You," "She is Seventeen," "Oxygen Tank" and others are really good.

I checked him out not too long ago.
The songs are fine, but it sounds like so much other music being made that I just don't really have any time for it.

I both see what you mean and wholly disagree. There is a quality--especially to his voice--that distinguishes it form the obvious touchpoints. In my opinion. Obviously. Or i wouldn't write it.

I just listened to the whole thing for the first time, though I'd downloaded "Almost Like the Blues" the day it was released and have listened to that several dozen times. It's not fair to say after one listen, but I think I like this more than Old Ideas. I'm not sure I'm fully on board with him speak-singing the same lines that the female background singers sing (but out of time with one another), but I like the melodies, like the production, and as usual there are plenty of great lines throughout. I decided to buy the whole album and just downloaded it.

Has anybody listened to Jack White's new album? Dave Davies described this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI-95cTMeLM) as sounding like the Mothers of Invention and I am very confused.

I've listened to it and bought a few songs--including that one--but don't know what Dave Davies is talking about. Maybe the main riff--or at least its tone especially before the guitar that joins at :21--is almost kind of like "Hungry Freaks, Daddy?" But I don't hear MOI in "Lazaretto."

This week I bought one of Prince's two new releases, Art Official Age. (Sorry, Prince, I can't write the all caps thing. I struggle to do the whole 2 and U and 4 crap, too...ugh.) It's the solo album, as opposed to PlectrumElectrum, his band-album with 3rdEyeGirl (yep, there's the stuff I hate again), more funk and soul than the rock-jazz oriented PlectrumElectrum.

As one would suspect, it's not a return to the consistent brilliance and freshness of 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, or Sign of the Times, but the more I consider Prince's work, seriously, the more I think it's the lack of freshness more than the lack of quality that hurts. In the 1980s, his sound seemed perfectly in the moment. In fact, it created the moment. His sound wasn't out of nowhere: the influences of Sly Stone, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire and others were always obviously apparent. But their recombined, oversexed repackaging (all in a tiny little androgynous Minnesotan black man not lacking swagger) was just shocking and enthralling. These were my formative years--I was four to 14 in the '80s--and I remember it well. Whether it was parental nervousness as evidenced by Tipper Gore's PMRC or effusive praise from Paul McCartney, Prince just mattered. He was absolutely essential.

That started wearing off already by the beginning of the '90s, though he kept putting out interesting and sometimes hugely successful music. (People forget that Diamonds and Pearls, for example, had several hits, as did the symbol album and even the Gold Experience, by which time we're in the mid-90s. So it's not like he disappeared after Sign of the Times.) But he fell into the same trap that every long-term act falls into: new directions are considered a misguided abandonment of what got him there, while the same direction is considered rehashing, a retro act. There is literally no winning this game, and I can't think of someone who was consistently an exception. And naturally, there are only so many directions one can take even if the mindset to try them out is there.

Throughout, as MugginsXO and I have been discussing in the Prince thread, the man put out HUGE quantities of music: Emancipation, his first post-Warners record, was a 3-disc set in 1996; Crystal Ball was a 4-disc set in 1998. By my quick count, he put out something like 18 albums of new material in these past 18 years, several of them multidisc sets. And guess what: someone as brilliant as Prince indisputably was in the late '70s, '80s and early '90s doesn't just forget how to make good music. An obviously gifted singer and guitarist (and passable drummer, bassist, and pianist) can keep making do--he's not a flash-in-the-pan based on a cute haircut or seductive video. So this vast catalog is bound to contain something of merit, right?

Right. So, Art Official Age.

It fits into the pattern of what we've had on and off since at least Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic: recognizable "Princeish" moments intermingled with of-the-times production techniques. The guy can still build a groove and sing as well as, or better than, anyone else in the business. "Breakdown" shows what vocal chops on an aging voice can be, forget whether Brian Wilson can croak out an occasionally on-pitch Ab in "God Only Knows." "The Gold Standard" brings a familiar electric funk (and an annoying final few seconds of narrative crap, a weakness of Prince for decades now). "Breakfast Can Wait" is the inevitable seduction song, though the guy isn't as freaky as he was way back when. (He is in his late 50s, after all...) I suspect "Clouds" and "U Know" will get repeated plays.

Conversely, some of the album is just awkward. The almost-title track is just embarrassing, with the stadium-applause and spoken intro, even as the funky guitar-and-claps music that begins the song is catchy. It devolves into a four-on-the-floor dance beat and later a bit of rap-turned-choiresque section. It feels just...wrong. This is my taste, I guess. The "affirmation" spoken bits are more of the spoken bits I referenced earlier. I prefer an album to be music, not connected by dialogue or narration or scene-setting. Again, it's just me.

Anyway, my recommendation is that if you are or ever have been a Prince fan, you find it on Spotify or preview some tracks on iTunes or your service of choice. There truly are some good songs here, well worth a buck or so apiece. Just because he isn't blazing new trails or shocking people's moms anymore, that doesn't mean he isn't absolutely brilliant as a musician and putting out solid stuff.

I actually quite like the science fiction-y spoken word stuff. I particularly like the transition from Time into the last track. It felt very LoveSexy to me. New agey, kind of bullshit but ultimately something that unifies the mood on the album. I'm also glad Lianna La Haves got a presence through the whole album. She is a bright spot of sort of under the radar new R&B/Soul people.



I think that's about right though I reckon at least a part of that is that after a certain point an artist of his stature has so many fans who have decided that all they ever want from you is THAT ONE THING THEY LOVE and very often consider anything outside of that a desperate attempt to appeal to the kids or whatever. I love 90s R&B and in my opinion and to my ears Emancipation has aged best aurally of any of his 90s albums. It is of the time but also pretty full on Prince. Not a perfect album because of its length but I still think that's some of his most exciting post 80s stuff. He was really inspired and motivated on that album. I think Art Official Age is similarly engaging with the music of the time in a positive way. A rare thing after the 1980s. And even a touch of that competition while maintaining his character leads to a better bit of work.

I can recommend both of these new releases:

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/101398093/Outlines+PeterDoran.jpg)

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/100481931/We+Come+From+The+Same+Place+artworks000087452352042avnt500.jpg)




Doran is mellow songwriter/folk fare.. exactly the right thing for having a decent cup of coffee on a Sunday afternoon. Like today.
The new album by Allo Darlin' is the 1st thing I've heard of them. Pleasant jangly indie-pop with great vocals and instrumentation that I can find nothing wrong with.

Either way, if you're that sort of thing respectively, give 'em a chance.


(http://oi61.tinypic.com/5kohab.jpg)

I've been following (and enjoying) this guy since his first album about 14 years ago, but his new album may just be his best yet. This is hook-laden crunchy pop music of the highest order with amazing production. Early XTC comes to mind listening to the new single Bad Law:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkyUKXdFw_E

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52684612/sondre_lerche_please.jpg)

Probably not likely to be a favorite among the rock-band oriented members, but regular Odd Future collaborator Vince Staples released a 7-song EP, "Hell Can Wait." A few of the tracks are pretty impressive. I liked "65 Hunnid" and "Hands Up" in particular.

I'll get on this.

I've loved Lerche's work for a few years and everything he's released from the lushly-orchestrated pop to the twitchy-sugary pop-rock stuff and everything in between. Very much looking forward to getting my hands on this album even if Bad Law took a few listens to get into. Will be seeing him live for the first time at the end of this month too.

Thanks for calling this out! For a dozen years or so now, Sondre Lerche has inevitably fallen into the "oh, whose music is that? it's kind of nice? [followed by me forgetting and not buying it]" category. But the past few years I have really been working to break out of my musical ruts, neither buying nor not-buying artists' work because of what they've done before. So I figured I'd give it a listen on your recommendation (despite disliking XTC, whom you referenced as a comparison).

By track two, I knew I was buying this album. Not being conversant with his earlier music--as I said, he has always been pleasant background to me before, an afterthought--my impression of this is that it's more alive. This music has blood in its veins. And as has been my experience with him before, it's melodic and well crafted as well.

So thanks for the tip. I might have missed it otherwise. Ask Mr. Lerche for your commission.

On "Lucifer," Lerche sounds so much like Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal, it's uncanny. Not so much the track (though maybe in spots there, too), but the vocal. Funny. (And not a bad thing for this OM-lover.)

This is finally on Spotify--just out in the U.S. yesterday, maybe?--and so I'm giving it a listen. I enjoy it. Sounds like a second-rate Belle & Sebastian, which isn't a bad thing to be. To be fair, I'm only four songs in, so it's possible they're a third-rate Belle & Sebastian, or that they're better than I'm thinking and I just need to hear more. But my first impression is that it's pleasant and probably has a few songs worth buying, but not the whole album.

Thanks to those posting ideas in this thread: in just the past few days, I've heard and enjoyed two albums I otherwise wouldn't have.

Of Montreal's Lousy With Sylvanbriar might have been my favorite 2013 release (after Bowie's at least).  :thumbsup

Funny how a lot of their fans seem to hate it. I loved it and think it's among their best albums. Their next one is due in March and based on the new song the played live when I saw them last week, it's (yet another) new direction. Same band as Lousy, but more complex structurally. The word "prog" was tossed around in the green room.

I mentioned it in the now listening thread but the new Tinashe album is really quite good. Perfect with ASAP Rocky is not representative of the sound or tone of the album. Worth it for folks inclined towards the new wave of R&B.

The past few years I've put together a year-end playlist that combines a) some favorite songs of the year; b) a broad range of artists I've enjoyed that year; all in c) a running order that's enjoyable on its own. I try to keep it to one, maybe two, songs per artist. And I try to keep it around the length of a double album.

We're a little more than 3/4 through the year, and this is what I have so far. If anyone has ideas on glaring absences, I would love to hear them. Doesn't mean I'll accept them, of course, but I'll listen (if I haven't already).

1. Can You Do This, Aloe Blacc (Lift Your Spirit)
2. All About That Bass, Meghan Trainor (Title)
3. Shake It Off, Taylor Swift (1989)
4. Breakdown, Prince (Art Official Age)
5. Happy, Pharrell Williams (G I R L)
6. Love Never Felt So Good, Michael Jackson (Xscape)

7. The Ballad of Mr. Steak, Kishi Bashi (Lighght)
8. Bad Law, Sondre Lerche (Please)
9. Slow Motion, PHOX (PHOX)
10. She Is Seventeen, Avi Buffalo (At Best Cuckold)
11. The English Softhearts, Literature (Chorus)
12. Requiem, Ramesh (The King)

13. Orange Juice, Stanley Brinks and the Wave Pictures (Orange Juice)
14. Temporary Ground, Jack White (Lazaretto)
15. Reverie on Norfolk Street, Luluc (Passerby)
16. Just One of the Guys, Jenny Lewis (The Voyager)
17. Nothing More than Everything to Me, Christopher Owens (A New Testament)
18. Don't Think Twice, Dolly Parton (Blue Smoke)
19. Did I Ever Love You, Leonard Cohen (Popular Problems)

20. The Trailer Song, Kacey Musgraves (The Trailer Song)
21. I'm Not the Only One, Sam Smith (In the Lonely Hour)
22. Night at Lake Unknown, Conor Oberst (Upside Down Mountain)
23. I Know, Sharon Van Etten (Are We There)
24. Good Luck, Good Night, Goodbye, The Secret Sisters (Put Your Needle Down)
25. Bless the Telephone, Kelis (Food)

The Timbaland/JT mix of Love Never Felt So Good is bloody brilliant. I really loved that last album they put out. Miles away from the one they did right after he died. Sounded like a real album and not a collection of outtakes.

I had listened just to some samples on iTunes and wasn't really taken by it. I'll give it a full listen to see whether it strikes me on a more thorough attempt.

Indie folk aficionados might want to treat themselves with the Horse Feathers' new So It Is With Us:

(http://oi58.tinypic.com/33w1tms.jpg)



=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCm5wRMalY4

It's the kind of album that needs some time. It is very atmospheric and as that builds up things get good.

Agreed. "Loving You" is incredible (original + remake).

Great picks. I didn't like "Shake It Off" on first listen, but it grew on me. The production is really strong. Love the high school football game vibe. Max Martin can do no wrong.

edit: One Direction's new single is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sahsquWlw5I

Another recommendation:

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/98871841/Return+To+Bohemia+2.jpg)

(http://oi57.tinypic.com/2ekubeg.jpg)

Never heard of them before so I watched the video you linked. Went from kinda liking, to hating voice, to sort of liking voice (when it left too-emotive scratchy territory and took an Iron & Wine turn), to not sure again. So ... not sure. But I'm going to keep an ear open here.

New LP is kinda unlike their earlier records. Just listen to some random stuff of theirs to get a better overall impression, I'd say. The Youtube link I posted isn't my favourite from the record, either.

The Foster The People 'Supermodel' album has lots of great tracks but if I had to pick just one to add to your 'Best of 2014' list I'll suggest Pseudologia Fantastica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgE-fJk00Q8

That is a good list Captain. I have heard most of the songs/albums on there. Blue Smoke was a surprisingly good album. For someone who portrays herself as physically artificial and altered, she still has a direct line to making music that sounds entirely natural and pleasing. 

Do you make playlists and such like on Spotify? 

The Jessie Ware album kind of lost me in the middle but the song Tough Love has me fully hooked. Love the nods to Little Red Corvette. 

I only listened to that album about once through back when it came out and while I didn't dislike it, I wasn't excited by it, either. I'll give it another listen on your suggestion, though. Lord knows I've flip-flopped before.

Not usually. I generally make playlists for myself on iTunes and that's that. When I have wanted to do Spotify playlists, I inevitably have a few songs that aren't on Spotify. Then--if I have this right--it ends up that while I can hear them because they are in my library, other listeners can't (because I tend not to want to make things publicly available). I am just guessing, but on this year's list-to-date, I assume Stanley Brinks and Ramesh aren't on Spotify.

Stanley Brinks is on there in abundance, including the song in your list. The Ramesh song/album is on there too.

There are differences between regions, occasionally considerable but these are showing up for me here in Europe.

Cool. I'm surprised especially @ Stanley Brinks, considering his somewhat limited distribution here. (I've never seen s physical disc under Andre Herman Dune or Stanley Brinks in the US.)

Anyway, why did you ask re whether I make Spotify playlists?

Just that I do most of my listening through it and was wondering whether I could just subscribe to the above 2014 playlist. I might make one for the year actually. Some good stuff in 2014.

I'll check into it (and previous years', since I think I'm on my 3rd or 4th formal list).

Listening to this now--1st time--and enjoying it a lot. There have been 2-3 songs that warrant consideration among the year's few dozen best. Generally speaking I'm not a fan of the influence of 80s pop soundscapes on current music but a lot of it works here. I think eventually talent--in material, performance or both--overcomes those sorts of things.

I listened to Stars' new album No One is Lost today. As usually seems to be the case with them, my reaction was: professionally done, wholly unnecessary, and somewhat pleasant music.

I did really like a few songs off their 2007 album In Our Bedroom After the War. And there are certainly some solid songs--or at least solid recordings and performances--here. But mostly I just don't care. It's my fault.

And the new Foxygen:

"If you can't say something nice..."

Don't know if you like/follow the Needle Drop on YouTube but he gave this album a 2 out of 10. Which really is something...

Heard the new Annie Lennox (all covers) LP today - Nostalgia. Neat song selection but a tad bland overall (general approach, production, vocals). Not recommended.

(http://oi58.tinypic.com/34g9b4n.jpg)

I'm with you on that, Cap.

I want to call out (at least) one song from this album specifically because it's kicking my ass repeatedly these past couple days. "Keep on Lying" is really wonderful. On my first listen, the instrumental introduction almost had me laughing over my gag, or gagging over my laugh, sounding like some horrific preset on a discount-store keyboard. As I said, I'm not fond of the '80s vibe in so much modern pop... But the verse vocals had my attention, at least minimally.

The background vocals in the pre-chorus, :45ish, are nice. And then--HOLY sh*t--that refrain! The suspensions do it for me. They really do. This song is wonderful. Ware is a really good singer, and this is fabulous. A vocal tour de force.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F09pr1RaiKE

Playing the new Yusuf / Cat Stevens... so far so good. More later!

(http://oi61.tinypic.com/1zm376w.jpg)






Okay, halfway through and it's a winner! Definitely recommended. Insightful review HERE (http://www.npr.org/2014/10/19/356126366/first-listen-yusuf-tell-em-im-gone).

Some intelligent, charming, and devilishly handsome chap posted in the Beach Boys forum that the new She & Him album is due out on Dec. 2. It's a covers album recorded live. I'm somewhere in the ballpark of interested--but not excited--about it. I liked some of their first album in particular, mostly because I didn't really know who Zooey Deschanel was (but did know and like M Ward), that kind of indie geek chic wasn't really omnipresent yet, and some of the songs were surprisingly good. (I love "Sweet Darlin'.") Since then, meh.

But I trust in Ward, and both of their hearts seem to be in the right place when it comes to influences, so I'll be curious to see what makes the track listing.

In any case, I can't believe I posted this. I'm obviously trying to stir things up by discrediting somefuckingbody or other and being a fuckall apologist. Something like that.

I like the second one a lot, particularly Driving In My Car. She is a charming presence in most things and am mostly entertained by what she does. I can't remember the last M. Ward but I like some of his albums pretty good too.

I didn't mind Driving In My Car. And she is charming, I'll give you that. Not the best singer, but not the worst. Cute, charming, likable ... enough to get by, which of course also leads certain sorts of people to spew venomous hatred after a while. (Humanity is a classy bunch.)

I started listening to M Ward around Transfiguration of Vincent. While he's never struck me as a great, he's really good. I think maybe a better collaborator and producer than artist, still, there is a lot to like. I actually actively disliked his last solo album, though (Wasteland Companion).

I do like her a lot. I am going to listen to the album a few more times. Have you heard that song she did with Sampha? Also have you heard Sampha? He is pretty good.

Woods - With Light and With Love (released earlier this year).


Whoever's a Woods fan already will love it, and anyone who's kind of, sort of, vaguely interested in psychedelic lo-fi indie freak folk with a distinctive 60s/70s flavour (oftentimes The Byrds come to mind) should check it out. They've had good LPs in the past, but this one's probably the easily-est accessible.


(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/98608295/With+Light+and+With+Love.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/ig7Dq4Y.jpg)

Panda Bear - Mr. Noah

Yeah quite nice.

It's been soooo long... real nice to have new Panda product. :-D I thought it was neat on 1st listen. Haven't yet gotten around to giving it a 2nd spin.

Listening now. Just a couple songs in: not bad at all. I'm enjoying it. I had some vague word-association with Woods that had told me I wasn't a fan. I wonder if I made that up, or if I just didn't care for something I'd heard before... After a while, one never knows. But this is, if nothing else, at least a nice listen. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up. I like it.
The video was cool, too. Although, I won't pretend like I understand it.

Taylor Swift, 1989. I'll have it on while I'm working today and write about it after.

Ah I want to hear this. I really liked her last one in spite of never really hearing or caring about her previously. I also saw her on Graham Norton recently being funny with John Cleese and delivering more than a couple fine retorts to his rather stodgy old man persona. Not going to be on Spotify I assume for ages. Will probably get it on iTunes.

(http://i.imgur.com/DKo8X7l.jpg)

Logic - Under Pressure
 
Just out the other day. Sounds promising. Very very Drake.

Yeah this is good. Aurally, in the smooth singing into rap singing into rapping way, as well as the kind of samples that appear it is definitely in that Drake style but subject matter wise it is not really at all. It is more traditional Rap subject stuff - violence, poverty, struggling to get rich and so on - although there is a degree of insight and general avoidance of cliches as well as the strength of the production that raises it above. For those wanting an intelligent and sonically pleasing modern Rap album, well worth a go.  

Just released, Belle & Sebastian's new single "The Party Line."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7CP2zxS4zo

Regarding this ... first of all, nice enough little beat that reminds me how fun it was to hear "Your Cover's Blown" back in '04 or whatever. Belle & Sebastian, dance music? Fun. As for the song as a whole, it doesn't blow me away yet. But virtually everything from them has been a grower for me, very little immediate excitement. (In fact, I didn't like the band at all for years.) So I've learned not to rush to judgment with them.

Also, the downloaded track from iTunes shows up as being from 2015. That's interesting, since, um, wait, what? How long was I asleep?

The recent release Pain Killer from mainstream country band Little Big Town has gotten enough good press lately that I decided to give it a listen even though that style of music usually isn't my thing. Arena shows, slick '90s rock with cowboy hats and boots, pedal steel, and just enough twang to call it country. That and the goatees they all seem to have. Why do they all have goatees? And '80s rocker hair? Or sleeveless shirts? I digress.

I wasn't impressed. While there were plenty of harmony vocals--one of my catnips--they weren't especially interesting ones. Pretty paint-by-numbers, I thought. And the production was the same kind of boring, loud, rockish country I introduced above and which generally does nothing for me.

The exception was the ballad "Girl Crush." It's actually (almost) another musical genre exercise, a 1950s I-vi-IV-V frame complete with heavily reverb'd guitar arpeggios. However, it is a little more interesting than that, with a iii instead of a vi, for starters. But more than any minor deviations from the formula, it's just a well performed song ... and a well written one, especially lyrically. The somewhat salacious title belies the reality of the song, which is a singer jealous of her would-be mate's mate. The girl crush isn't the male lesbian fantasy, it's about getting closer to the man for whom she pines.

I don't recommend the album, but this is $1.29 or whatever that you could do worse with.

Taylor Swift's 1989.

I meant to talk about it sooner. I failed in that partly because I couldn't decide what I'd want to say: see, it might not really warrant all that much discussion, which is ironic considering its (rare, these days) gigantic major-label marketing assault this past month or so.

"Shake it Off" was released, what, two months ago? I loved, and love, it. It's stupid, silly, shallow, and even a little devious: poor Ms. Swift, the underdog (despite being one of the most successful artists of the past decade)? Life must indeed be hard in big, bad New York... The cheerleader bridge, most of all--no, actually its spoken introduction!--drives me crazy. Not in a good way.

But "Shake it Off" surprised me now that I've heard the whole album, in that it's the best song on the album by far. Swift is a powerhouse songwriter, a pretty good singer, a great marketer. I expected this to be a fantastic album. Instead it's a good one, fitting easily alongside the trove of recent '80s-sounding pop and/or R&B albums. Honestly? I expected so much more. I like it. I listen to it. There are moments. But mostly I just think it seems like a very, very, very (did I say very?) calculated entry to a market that, frankly, doesn't need any more entrants.

I might be wrong, because maybe her fan base was more removed from this sound than I am. Maybe for her audience, little lines like "you can want who you want / boys and boys, girls and girls" might seem somehow novel or shocking. (After all, much was made of Kacey Musgraves saying "kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls, if that's what you're into" and "roll up a joint" made waves in the country world just a year or two ago.) So maybe this really is some bridge between her previous audience and her future, potential one.

Me, I keep being surprised how bored I am. "Out of the Woods," "Wildest Dreams."

What I don't hear in 1989 is 1989 (which I am old enough to remember pretty well). I wonder, what will 1989 sound like in 25 years?

*sigh*

There's a Mike Birbiglia comedy show wherein he jokes that his girlfriend "wins" every argument with "it's how I feel." Even if it isn't an argument--there is no argument--it just wins. It just trumps everything. Somehow I have a similar relationship to Panda Bear. When I was first hearing Animal Collective in the early '00s, I thought maybe I could like them, even though I didn't quite. When he released Young Prayer I bought it and wanted to like it. But didn't quite. I've always thought I could, maybe even should, like Panda Bear.

Maybe I'm too restricted to more traditional song forms. Maybe I don't do enough, or do the wrong, drugs.

But I just don't like Panda Bear. It's how I feel.

Understandable. You do know Person Pitch (2007), though? It's one of my all-time favourite LPs. 2011's Tomboy is a good album as well.

I've listened to each one as it came out, but honestly haven't spent much time with any, as they all left me feeling the same.

It's not new anymore, but it's a 2014 release nonetheless. For more than four months I have occasionally come back to work out my feelings toward Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence.

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/767/MI0003767821.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

Before this album, there was exactly one Del Rey song I even marginally liked, "Video Games," which I like quite a bit. But I have thought--and still think--if there is a current example of style over substance, it is her. She's a singer, melodist, and lyricist whose voice is limited, melodies are often forgettable, and lyrics are often awkward (stretching syllables to force meter, for example). Yet the limited voice is effective in its character if not its technical quality. The occasional melody does cut through. And the lyrics paint interesting pictures. That's the word: interesting. In the "listening to" thread I recounted for the millionth time that first "Video Games" listen and me "do-I-like-it-or-not?" response.

At a certain point, not knowing means yes because doing more than moving on is at least something.

Ultraviolence is so obvious, so heavy-handed in its approach, covering well trodden ground even as it pretends to be shocking. The disaffected narco-chanteusse with her big, bad pottymouth saying ... what, exactly? The music, built around her melodies by collaborators, certainly fits her lyrics: all mood, no direction.

But at its best--which as was the case last time around, is pretty rare--the whole trick works. Nothing is happening, really, but it somehow warrants repeated listens anyway. It's all setting and no plot, but it's a striking setting. The flimsy artifice of the whole thing drives me nuts, and yet there you have it: today I bought "West Coast," "Brooklyn Baby," and "Ultraviolence." But if I ever had the chance to meet Lizzy Grant, I'd have to quiz her: is it a joke? Forget the music, is Lana Del Rey just a performance art piece? What the f*** is going on?

Edit: One thing I'd like to clarify that might not have come through in my rambling above. I'm not opposed to an artist playing a character. It's common and effective. Whether wholly invented or exaggerated versions of themselves, it's fine. Anyone who (unlike myself) pays attention to what I've said in the past knows I think authenticity is a somewhat stupid expectation for a musician (or artist of any kind). My issue with the Lana Del Rey character is how badly done, how clumsy it is. It's like a bad parody of a wannabe-outsider college sophomore, darkly finding herself cultured and knowing thanks to the vast life experience accumulated over her year away from home. ("No, I'm not going to the football game, freshman...I'm fucking tortured. I'm going to stay in my room and read Bukowski.")

It isn't that Lana Del Rey is a fake. It's that she's a bad one, which makes me think the joke is on a different level altogether.

I will write more later but I entirely disagree. I think if it is a character it is a particularly compelling one, not for it being tortured but for expressing a mood and frame of mind that is as seductive as it is noir and comic. Relating to the meaning or reality of it is unnecessary and perhaps even actively contrary to the quality of the thing.

I think on the shocking thing which is generally something said about almost anyone who does music that contains coarse subject matter and particularly that this is the only tool in the shed so to speak. I think this is a frequently mistaken assumption. I don't think lyrically or conceptually Lana Del Rey is intending to be a prodder and a poker. I think that is just the style of music/expression she likes. As with say almost all Dancehall folks having very graphically sexual lyrics all over the place and videos to match. The aim isn't anywhere to shock and almost no one within the scene thinks of it in that way. It is just an element of the music.

If you're right, then it strikes me as even worse. Then it's even more boring.

.

(http://i.imgur.com/ta9bpUJ.jpg)

Stalley - Ohio

Yeah, OK so far. Nothing too special.

One More Shot featuring Rick Ross and August Alsina (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3RFzgOp-5k)

Jackin' Chevys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJlwm-MuSug)

Boomin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PbUSaGH_n4)

Ah it gets into it in the second half. Less cliches, better beats, better hooks. Smoother, better.

I particularly like 3:30pm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNPMbougEw).

System On Loud (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCGEQnsglGA)

Chevelle featuring Rashad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVL2h7VUEUg)

Check out this surprisingly accessible nugget from Laetitia Sadier's (Stereolab) new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwDyvRFmGY

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52684612/MI0003790443.jpg)

I kinda love it myself.

Azealia Banks, Broke With Expensive Taste
(http://www.billboard.com/files/styles/promo_650/public/media/azealia-banks-broke-with-expensive-taste-album-review-2014-billboard-412.jpg)

Is it humility, insecurity, or something else altogether that pressures me to lead off these words about Azealia Banks's newly dropped (Friday, with no promotion) Broke With Expensive Taste? A few of the tunes I feel fully qualified to talk about--"Nude Beach A-Go-Go" most of all, which slips right into the wheelhouse of this board, or would if this board didn't take itself so seriously--but maybe a third of it is a kind of dance music I'm not even able to categorize, such is my ignorance of the form.

I'm not pretending to be some sort of authority passing judgment, I'm just some schmuck sharing his listening experience. Of course I have every right to talk about my opinions, regardless of my contextual knowledge. Still, I don't want to spout my perspectives only to find out I'm making a fool of myself from sheer cluelessness, do I?

Yes. Yes, I do.

I've heard a song or two of Banks's before, mostly because I'd read of various feuds she had going on with other artists and, well, let's be honest, her "Harlem Shake" video warranted a view (or 27). But when I saw this new album in the iTunes store, I figured I'd give it a quick sampling.

It piqued my curiosity approximately five seconds in, with the light Latin beat of "Idle Delilah." As the music builds around the beat, Banks comes in singing, not rapping, a repetitive but memorable melody that fits into the vamp of the beat. Later her voice is clipped and heavily edited, as if sharply gated, for a totally unrealistic and interesting effect that contrasts with the more natural feel of the track. When she does rap, it's agile and more interestingly nuanced than some of her deadpanned deliveries.

Is this Tito Puente or Azealia Banks? After the stadium-horns and heavy bass of the second track, "Gimme a Chance," mutate into another percussive Latin vibe, one begins to wonder. This one-two punch to kick off the album is FANTASTIC. If nothing else, buy these songs.

The other gem is the tongue-in-cheek surf-rock "Nude Beach A-Go-Go," which is also appearing on Ariel Pink's upcoming album and features him in some capacity. (Pitchfork says he produced it. I think he's singing, too. No idea as far as the track goes.) I'm no fan of Pink, but this song is a devilish little grin of a good time. It also shows off Banks's singing and silly personality instead of her typical, hyper-aggressive, hyper-sexual persona.

After just a listen and a half, I'm less certain how I feel about some of the other songs, though I did buy the whole album. ($9.99 on iTunes with $1.29 individual tracks, I figured after the third or fourth song I liked I may as well get the whole thing.) "Desperado" is good, with a moody, echoed trumpet sample I know I know from somewhere--is it Miles from one of the atmospheric late '60s albums? "Soda" is a weary contralto over the kind of dance beat for which I have no particular affinity, yet I enjoy the song. There are several others where I'm not so sure, turned off or tuning out the simple, blunt beats, that goshdarn half-note triplet and four eighth notes beat. (Y'all ready for this?)

More interesting is "212," an older song that's full of what Banks is known for--hell, it is what Banks is known for. She's bratty, vulgar. (Who makes the key phrases of a song "I guess that c-nt gettin' eaten" and "I'ma ruin you, c-nt"?) But she's startlingly good, skipping between three or four separate voices, even separate personae in the song, both rapping and singing.

She reminds me of an East Coast version of the Odd Future guys, in that she's got a tremendous range beyond what one first expects. She covers a lot of ground and might offend people along the way, but there's always enough wit, enough musicality, enough pop to keep some listeners around for more. I like it.

By the way, two quick things:
 
1) You'll never guess from where I stole the image! Is it ... Rolling Stone? No. Guess again. (You'll never get it!)

2) We can't even say g-o-d-d-a-m-n? It turns into goshdarn? Fuckinabucket.

1 billboard.com
2 that sucks

You, Gertie J, have wowed me. What were the odds?

I have that site bookmarked.

This morning I was trying to figure out whether to add some Azealia Banks to my in-progress 2014 playlist, and if so, which. I think I've decided on "Nude Beach A-Go-Go" because it's a nice summary of styles otherwise on the playlist ... but damnit, I'm struggling to edit this thing. A couple weeks ago I posted the then-version, which was 25 songs. That's about as long as I want it to get. This morning it was 29 songs. I'm agonizing over this thing.

I can't get over how many things I've liked this year. I could do two playlists and be pretty happy with them. But as a wise, baseball-capped man once said, don't f*** with the formula.

Not sure but will give Azealia Banks a go. I am a fan of high grade vulgarity. Still hoping that The Pink Print is better than Anaconda though!

For all fans of female singer/songwriter indie folk I recommend this lady from New Zealand:

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/101476601/Tiny+Ruins+georgiecraw_2_full.jpg)


.. and her 2014 LP, Brightly Painted One:

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/97983591/Brightly+Painted+One+TinyRuins.jpg)

Lowbacca, thanks for the tip. I'm listening now and it's very pleasant.

(http://i.imgur.com/75avgz0.jpg)

Deptford Goth - Songs

Enjoyed this. For a down mood. Still a stupid fucking name. Almost as bad as The Twilight Sad.

deleted - thought this was the "What are you listening to..." thread.

8)





Bryan Adams - Tracks Of My Years

(http://oi62.tinypic.com/9unswm.jpg)

It is what it is, not more: Bryan Adams covering some of his favourites in an unsurprising manner. It's enjoyable all the way through, though. Includes a cover of "God Only Knows".

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/808/MI0003808192.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

The New Basement Tapes, Lost on the River

I had heard of this project a few months back but entirely forgotten it: a batch of musicians were given access to some Basement Tapes-era Dylan lyrics and, under the supervision of T-Bone Burnett, wrote and recorded an album around them. Elvis Costello is the most well known, with other participants including Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, and Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The album, i assume by no coincidence, was released just a week after the Bootleg Series Basement Tapes albums. There is also apparently a Showtime documentary about the making of the album, which sounds interesting. I'd like to check that out.

I listened to the 20-song deluxe edition. And from it, I think there is really one helluva good standard-length album to be had. I was working while listening, but took note of a few songs in particular. No fan of Dawes on the whole, I really enjoyed Goldsmith's vocal on "Florida Key." Giddens' "Spanish Mary" was another highlight. There were at least four or five other songs I really, really liked. The album is in that territory for me of waffling between buying half a dozen songs, or just getting the whole damn thing even though I'll never bother with maybe another four or five songs again. Some of the good ones are really good, and the styles, while all pretty firmly planted in the expected environment of "roots," are diverse enough to cover a lot of ground.

The diversity of voices is also a nice treat for me. Even my favorite voices can make a group wear on me; not coincidentally, I'm a longtime lover of bands like the Beatles, Beach Boys, the Band, Queen. This, a minor-league Traveling Wilburys (doing Lucky Wilbury's lyrics, no less!) isn't a bad album at all.

I've listened to The New Basement Tapes album a few more times and I'm really enjoying it. I've also been struggling to imagine what my reaction would have been had I not known these were '67 Dylan lyrics, but there's no way to know that.

Also, new Tyler, the Creator single, "Diapers," posted on the Odd Future Golf Wang tumblr: http://golfwang.tumblr.com/post/102981791418

Voice is buried in parts and I'm not the biggest fan of Tyler's rapping anyway (I'm sure he's really sad to hear that). I love the track, though, especially when it's laid bare about halfway through.

Original Version of Movin Bass featuring Tink (http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/rick-ross-movin-bass-feat-jay-z-tink-original-version-new-song.1959712.html)

Here is someone that seems to be exciting some people.

Here is a mixtape of hers from early this year. (http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/tink-winter-s-diary-2-new-mixtape.107114.html)

I have The New Basement Tapes ready to go for after dinner when I can have a beer. Very excited about it!

It almost pains me to admit it after I semi-trashed him in the thread dedicated to him, but I'm listening to and almost liking:

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/808/MI0003808999.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Ariel Pink, Pom Pom

Probably the only thing that even got me to pay any attention to the album coming out at all was knowing he worked with Azealia Banks on "Nude Beach A-Go-Go," which is undoubtedly one of my 15 or so favorite songs of the year. So when I heard it was out this week, I made a point of reading about it and listening to it, in that order. I read it was reminiscent of Frank Zappa, which turned me off immediately. See, I love Zappa, and just couldn't imagine anything Pink did as being close to Zappa in quality, so I figured maybe I was in for a superficial and annoying version of Zappa-lite.

Instead, this turns out to be a pretty fucking good album. As I said even in my criticism of the guy, Pink has what matters to me maybe most of all: the gift of hook/melody. You can work around other weaknesses, but that's what a song is, at least for me. Here he displays that talent indeed much along the lines of some later 60s Zappa: think Cruisin' With Ruben and the Jets meets Uncle Meat with just a hair of Hot Rats. There are comedic nods to simple rock 'n' roll forms, there are bizarre instrument choices, there is big-dumb-blunt playing, but it's mingled with deft, nimble passages. He even sings in a Frankish voice. As with Zappa, you can tell that he isn't mocking this stuff, he loves it deeply. (He's mocking you.)

I'm not sure what I'll do now. Because damnit, I've been really successful at not much listening to Ariel Pink or caring what he does. Now I will listen a few more times on Spotify and decide what, if anything, to buy. My best guess at the moment is I'll end up with 2-4 of these songs in my collection. There are worse ways to spend five bucks. For example, I paid $10 for a 6-pack of Schell's "Fresh Hop Equinox Pilsner," which is about $3 more than their typical 6-pack and $2 more than a standard micro. I overpaid. It's fine, but nothing great. That's a few songs right there! Commiserate with me. I'm washing down my sorrow with a Schell's "Fresh Hop Equinox Pilsner."

I just read that my beloved "Nude Beach A-Go-Go" is a Kim Fowley co-write (with A. Pink). That sounds about right.

I was just listening to the beautiful new album from Rumer, the Karen Carpenter sound-alike singer. If 70s style easy-listening (in a good way) singer songwriters is your bag, or if you just like the Carpenters, you should give this talented lady a listen if you haven't already had the pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGdGvFsfqbU&list=PLwxJgFKauR_Lzl_YfnSpcPaHYjhv3lLnb

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52684612/61okzE1xJkL.jpg)

Yesterday on my drive home from work I heard a single from OK Go--a band I've more or less ignored in the decade or so they've been around--and really, really enjoyed it. The song is the disco-influenced "I Won't Let You Down," from the 2014 album Hungry Ghosts. The producer is David Fridmann, who did a lot of albums I liked in the late 90s and early 00s with Elf Power, the Flaming Lips, and the Delgados. (His career is much bigger than that; I'm just saying those were the albums of his I liked best.)

This groove is really fantastic: infectious in the most positive sense. I've purchased this song.

Apparently they are known for their occasionally viral videos. (I had no idea, but did a little research this morning.) Here is one for the aforementioned song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZB_rGFyeU

As for the rest of the album, I'm listening to it on Spotify now and doubt I'll buy it. But I might get a couple more songs. The immediate grabber is "I Won't Let You Down."

New version of Beyonce is on Spotify and similar services. One of the best albums of last year. If you haven't checked it out, give it a go.

Mark Ronson's single with Bruno Mars--performed this weekend on SNL, though I didn't know it--is out. "Uptown Funk" is good, good stuff. There's also a single with Mystikal out, "Feel Right."

"Uptown Funk" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0

The album is due in January. I'm somewhat excited. The first quarter of 2015 brings (off the top of my head) Mark Ronson, Belle & Sebastian, Bob Dylan, and Of Montreal. Not a bad way to kick things off.

Mystikal doing a song with Mark Ronson is... unexpected.

(It's a really good track. Mystikal always had top delivery. So growly.)

Regarding Tink, this is a useful introduction:

11 Tink Songs You Should Know (http://www.complex.com/music/2014/11/tink-songs-you-should-know/)

Her official debut is set for next year.

I love it. Great track a la early '70s James Brown, and Mystikal is pretty spectacular. Sometimes he actually sounds like James, too.

Yes, certainly his own fault but he could have done a lot more during his first run. Perhaps this track will provide a second opportunity.

Lost On The River is fucking great. They should do another album just because.

Wow, I think you like it more than I do--and I like it. But I don't go quite as far as "fucking great." Still, it is good. I wish I had Showtime, as I'd like to see that documentary. I'm a bit of a sucker for those sorts of things.

On the deluxe version, I'm particularly fond of roughly the second quartile / middle third. Some great songs in there.

Within the past day or so, two new Lana Del Rey songs have been posted. They both appear in the upcoming Tim Burton movie Big Eyes. The songs are "Big Eyes" and "I Can Fly," the former of which sounds really good to me on one listen. (The latter, I don't like as much, but it has its moments.)

http://pitchfork.com/news/57686-lana-del-reys-songs-big-eyes-and-i-can-fly-surface/

Two new releases of interest (to me) today.

Belle & Sebastian released their second song (and I think first video) from their upcoming, Jan. 2015, album.

Nobody's Empire: http://youtu.be/Rgb8am3NQU0

And from Of Montreal's new album, scheduled for March 3, we have the first song (not yet for sale, but on Soundcloud).

Bassem Sabry: https://soundcloud.com/of-montreal

Those were both pretty disappointing, especially Belle and Sebastian. I found this new single by Sir Paul today that I really like called Hope For The Future which he wrote for a video game,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163_C5UVU-I

I actually agree with that "disappointing" sentiment (though I actually disliked the McCartney more). B&S have become a far more polished, professional outfit over the past decade, but for me they've gone almost too far. Not a lot of immediacy, vigor. (Dear Catastrophe Waitress was the pinnacle for me.) That said, I have found the past couple to be growers, so we'll see.

I'm enjoying the Of Montreal song a little more on repeated listens, which is no big shock. I also realized what threw me at first: a lot of the vocals, especially the lead in the verse, are in a lower register than usual and single tracked. That's pretty rare for K Barnes, especially these past 10 years or so. While I don't think it is anything near his best work--which to be fair I also said of "Fugitive Air" at first, an opinion I now thoroughly reject--in terms of pure Barnsian hookiness, I do like the track quite a bit. The bass, the guitars, the keys, the disco beat. So for me a fun listen, even if it isn't the best song.

All that said, I don't think it would make my best-of-year playlist, which is likely going to end up two dozen or so songs. Even expanded to, say, 30, I doubt it would make it.

I took the day off work (and for that matter have only a few more days I'll be working all month) and am taking part of it to go through various publications' best-of-year lists (quite a few out already) to listen to what I either haven't heard or haven't heard much in an attempt to have a full spectrum from which to make my own lists. I know everyone cares. My lists, they have you waiting on the edges of your seats. Don't lie.

Anyway, I'll be posting thoughts on some of them eventually, no doubt. Among the bands/artists I have jotted down are Alvvays (not a fan so far), FKA Twigs, K Michelle, Mac DeMarco, Calle 13, Roseanne Cash, Ratking, YG, Sturgill Simpson, Aaron Freeman, Angeleena Presley, Your Old Droog, Miranda Lambert, and Flying Lotus. (If anyone has particularly strong feelings about any of those, I'd love to hear them.) I also want to revisit the Perfume Genius and St. Vincent albums, just to give them another shot. Big couple weeks of listening coming up for me.

Your Old Droog earned instant purchase. It tickled me right away, but especially when in the second song (the first proper one, after an intro), "Bad to the Bone," included the line "let me flex the vocab a little bit, make these crackers think I'm smart and tell me how I'm so articulate." I've only heard a few songs but it's so, so worth the money already. The tracks are early 90s east coast sounding, using scratchy analog-sounding instrumental backdrops. The words, well, ... I'm in love.

Angaleena Presley's American Middle Class is lovely.

This is my favourite song of 2014 so far: "Sailor's Daughter" by Sabina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nAnA2g-x4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nAnA2g-x4)

A few more quick thoughts (with more coming):

Calle 13 - wish I spoke/understood more Spanish. Interesting and listenable despite that barrier. Good rap delivery and musical backing tracks. Going to try it again.

YG - didn't do it for me. Just standard gangsta rap to these ears (making it tired).

Flying Lotus - tracks mostly reminded me of late 60s Miles Davis, like Filies de Kilimanjaro or something, with more modern sounds throughout. Largely instrumental, but with some singing and speaking as well. Kimbra and Kendrick Lamarr among the guests. Definitely plan to listen again, not sure where it fits overall, especially in a pop context.

Future Islands - boring. But then again I'm not as big on the gloomy early 80s sounding synth-based pop that is all over these days. (Not to mention my tendency to dislike baritone voices.)

K. Michelle - oversung. bored the sh*t out of me.

Sturgill Simpson - I don't get the hype. To me this was pretty straightforward, run of the mill modern country. Maybe I'll try it another time and see if it strikes me as different.

FKA Twigs - I can't say I like or dislike it, which is what I think I said the first time I listened to it earlier this year. Definitely not my thing in any kind of immediate way, but just not knowing what to do with something is sometimes reason enough to try it again later.

Mac DeMarco - I bet if I were 14 and stoned I'd enjoy this more. I have no need for this.

A few albums yet to check out (and of course I keep coming across new ones to add to the list, as well), but it seems like my late-year listenathon isn't yielding too much that would be essential. (I do really love that Your Old Droog though.) Still, better to know than not.

D'Angelo's new album, Black Messiah, dropped today. And it's good. Really good. About halfway through listen number one, I can report that it's dense, full of funk and harmonies ... so cool. Obviously that's no review. I'll listen a lot more and talk about it another time. But it's really a good album, especially for anyone into soul / R&B / funk.

Another new single off Panda Bear's upcoming album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prBaZzYmQrI

I concur, a very good album. It's definitely one that seems to reward repeat listenings.

Contrary to my previous, tempered response on this, I am now more likely to go with "fucking great" on this one. I still don't think it's some sort of life-changing, era-defining event. (Not the era in which it was half-written, performed, recorded, and released, anyway. Maybe it would have had a shot in '67, but since the participants were young or less at the time, that seems unlikely.) This is a really good album. 

I guess it's time for a new thread.

Not quite...but damn close.

The year is very nearly over (and for some of you, is over already). Thus the long-awaited (by nobody but me) release of my full 2014 playlist, which ended up being five "sides" of six songs apiece, with the exception of the final, eight-song side. I went about 25% over my typical year-end playlist because I really thought 2014 was an exceptional year for music.

I believe you can listen to the whole thing on Spotify if you have an account by going here: http://open.spotify.com/user/lutherh/playlist/3iNRxszv4kGkML2NtLPA9X

(If I'm wrong, sorry about that.)

The list is:

1. Can You Do This, Aloe Blacc
2. Nude Beach A-Go-Go, Azealia Banks
3. All About That Bass, Meghan Trainor
4. Shake it Off, Taylor Swift
5. I Won't Let You Down, OK Go
6. Happy, Pharrell Williams

7. Feel Right, Mark Ronson feat. Mystikal
8. Love Never Felt So Good, Michael Jackson feat. Justin Timberlake
9. The Ballad of Mr. Steak, Kishi Bashi
10. Slow Motion, PHOX
11. I'm Not The Only One, Sam Smith
12. Keep on Lying, Jessie Ware

13. The Party Line, Belle & Sebastian
14. We Come From the Same Place, Allo Darlin
15. I Think It's Gonna Happen Again, Avi Buffalo
16. Bad Law, Sondre Lerche
17. The English Softhearts, Literature
18. Requiem, Ramesh

19. Orange Juice, Stanley Brinks & the Wave Pictures
20. Three Women, Jack White
21. One of the Guys, Jenny Lewis
22. High & Wild, Angel Olsen
23. Gotta Get Away, The Black Keys
24. Nothing To It, the New Basement Tapes

25. Nothing More than Everything to Me, Christopher Owens
26. Don't Think Twice, Dolly Parton
27. The Trailer Song, Kacey Musgraves
28. Reverie on Norfolk Street, Luluc
29. Night at Lake Unknown, Conor Oberst
30. I Know, Sharon Van Etten
31. Good Luck, Good Night, Goodbye, The Secret Sisters
32. Bless the Telephone, Kelis

Captain, you should be the guy (or gal?) to start a 2015 thread since you listen to so much new music!

Plan to, just hadn't gotten or really listened to anything yet. That changes as soon as my preorders of Meghan Trainor's and Mark Ronson's respective albums come through for download in a few hours, though. So I guess I'll get to it!

What an awesome performance they put on at Glastonbury! Well, everywhere it seems. What a band, what a frontman! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK96dS6vuR8

I sorta agree with the captain's view on 80's-esque music these days. My friends are obsessed with Wild Cub and they're alright but not for me...

However, I did see Future Islands in concert, and like john k said they're crazy live! The lead singer actually acts like he's on something on stage. He puts a lot of energy into his performance. I thought they were super fun live :)

Also, on another previous post Kishi Bashi was mentioned. His new (2014) album is phenomenal. Watch his tiny desk performance... he is so talented!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgqAmZHkkTg

Amen, brother. Or sister. "The Ballad of Mr Steak" in particular was brilliant.

^ and I dig "Manchester" off of his first album. What a beautiful song.

2014 also saw the release of Foster the People's sophomore album, which didn't receive a ton of positive public recognition, but I liked it. I'm also partial to Mark Foster being a huge fan of the Beach Boys and all.
And Alvvay's self-titled, Bleacher's Strange Desire (I only listen to the A-side really though...), and Real Estate's Atlas.

I liked that song, too. In fact I think it was more or less the only one I liked off that album. I loved his contributions to Of Montreal as he toured with them on the Paralytic Stalks tour. He (along with the drummer who joined then and is still with them) really raised the musicianship level, which has since been improved throughout the group with new musicians elsewhere. In that show, he played several instruments and was a great high harmony singer.

Yeah, he definitely seems like a multi-talented guy. I think I know a song or two of Of Montreal's that he plays on, although their discography is pretty decent-sized so I haven't listened to all of their stuff.

Yes, Kevin Barnes is pretty prolific, to say the least. Not quite into Prince or Zappa territory, but he gets a lot out there.

I think the only albums he appears on are Paralytic Stalks, which is a somewhat noisy, non-song affair ("Difficult" was the word you heard a lot about it) and this year's Aureate Gloom, which I believe I wrote about in the 2015 thread.

But if I were going to introduce you to Of Montreal, I'd say you should try out the chamber pop/psych The Gay Parade or Coquelicot...; the diving-toward-electronic trio of Satanic Panic in the Attic, The Sunlandic Twins, and Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (a fabulous run of music); and the comparatively straight ahead rock of Lousy With Sylvianbriar. Even just pick one album from each of those three rough eras for starters, and expand outward according to your tastes. I believe Of Montreal is quite possibly the consistently best band in the past 15+ years, so I'd argue it's worth a shot.

Ok! Thanks, I'll check those out. I've listened to Skeletal Lamping before. Kinda weird music from a weird band, but it's the good kind of weird :P

Skeletal Lamping has its fans, and I do really, really like parts of it. ("Eluardian Instance" is absolutely glorious. And the performance of it on Letterman was fun, too.) But I actually rank it as middle of the pack, more or less.